When You Can't Decide
by My-Alphabet-Soup
Summary: Each chapter is a different story. You can use the chapter titles to look for characters or pairings that you might enjoy. Varied genres, pairings  canon and AU, range of lengths. Glee drabbles. Will not be added to.
1. Cherry1

**A/N I'd like to try something a little different, so I will be engaging in the longest fanfic I have ever written. Each chapter will be a drabble based on a title from a song used in Glee (not the lyrics, just the title), and I will be using every song that has ever been used in Glee (provided that it is listed on iTunes). **

**Some will be long and some will be short. I won't be using the same characters every time, but Rachel does feature in most of them because she is one of my favourite characters. Pairings will vary from chapter to chapter and no chapter will be directly related to another. Not every chapter will have the same genre; some will be romance, some will be tragedy, some will be hurt/comfort, there's even one supernatural in there somewhere, anything really.**

**I'll give a short introduction for each drabble at the beginning of each chapter. They won't be in any particular order, so I guess you won't know what's coming next!**

**CHAPTER ONE: You Can't Always Get What You Want**

**Characters: Cherry!unrequited **

**Summary: Spending time around her does him in. he's really not that quiet…it's just that every time he sees her face, he momentarily forgets how to speak.**

He remembers being a little kid with a crush on his second grade teacher. She was kind of short, compared to the other grown-ups, but she had the loveliest brown hair and even prettier brown eyes.

Maybe he's just always had a type.

Because now he finds himself staring at the only girl in Glee Club who has the same chocolate coloured hair and the same diminutive stature.

He remembers when he first started to fall for her, and look at her as more than that loud girl who, thankfully, never spoke to him. He had been in Glee for about a month when he first started to feel a little bit bouncier when he looked at her. About half a month after that was when he started to notice the butterflies. Then a mere week after _that_, he got a little giddy and light-headed when she smiled at him…or near him…or at all.

He wants nothing more than to be able to go up and talk to her, but every time he gets close enough to her, he's able to smell the vanilla shampoo she uses (It's always been his favourite smell), and it leaves him incapacitated and slightly resembling some slack-jawed yokel. So he keeps his distance. He can do that. Easy.

Except it's not quite as simple as that, because when she starts dating Finn (for real, not just behind Quinn's back), his heart breaks a little and he's dieing inside. He hates going to Glee practice when he has to see them together, and he's glad that he's sort of known for not talking, because at least he doesn't have to contribute anything. It's when he actually gets really mad at Finn (internally, of course) for breaking Rachel's heart that he realises just how far this has gone and that he's in too deep to keep distance. That's why he looks so happy, albeit shocked, that she points him out to help in her 'Fuck You' to Finn, and why he never takes his eyes off her. The boy is a damn fool for letting her go, and he's going to scoop her up before he comes to his senses.

But things don't always go to plan, so when he finally get up the courage to ask her on a date, he gets told by Santana and Brittany that Rachel is dating Jesse St James. Rachel never gets the mix-tape that he spent hours perfecting. He thought that it would be kind of perfect for her…but then he supposes that he's just not perfect for her.

He endures every minute of her happiness in silence, because whatever makes her happy makes him happy (or at least he tries to convince himself of that). He nearly punches Jesse St James' face right off when he has the gall to transfer to McKinley, but Rachel's dazzling smile keeps him seated. He does have to admit, though, that Jesse is kind of perfect for her. They have endless similarities and he is clearly talented enough to keep Rachel satisfied. So when Jesse defects back to Vocal Adrenalin, Rachel is that much more heartbroken, and it makes him feel a little sick.

When Puck calls on the guys to "go all Braveheart" on Vocal Adrenalin after they attacked Rachel with eggs in the parking lot, he immediately flashes into a white hot rage and doesn't hesitate to charge out of the room in the lead. If Mr Schue hadn't walked in at that exact second, they would have had to scrape St James off the floor with a spatula. No one treats Rachel like that and gets away with it. He doesn't know what he's going to do, because he doesn't want to risk getting expelled or anything, so he just funnels his energies into the Funk number that they are going to shove in Carmel's faces.

When they actually go to Regionals, he slips away from the group to go and tell Rachel how pretty she looks, but just as he's about to approach her, she walks towards Finn and he says, "I love you," to her, and his heart nearly implodes. But then suddenly he realises just how fine he is cutting it, and he runs backstage to join the rest of New Directions. Matt gives him a look, but says nothing. Something tells him that Matt knows about his feelings, but, like a dutiful bro, he hasn't said anything to her. Unfortunately he also hasn't helped in any way either.

The first thing to flash through his mind when Vocal Adrenalin wins first place is that he'll never see Rachel again. The second thing is that he's over-reacting.

But then…he's sort of not. Because if he can't see Rachel on a regular basis anymore, then he might just die. Inside.

He has never wanted anything more in his entire life. He doesn't think he'll ever want anything like this again. He's wrong of course, because he does go on to marry, but at that moment in his teenage life, he is sure that he will never forget the brown-haired girl from Glee who he loves so much that it hurts.


	2. Kurchel1

**CHAPTER TWO: Just The Way You Are**

**Characters: Kurchel!friendship**

**Genre: Friendship/Humor**

**Summary: "I love you just the way you are," she tells him firmly while he grumbles about how the Sim-Kurt doesn't capture his eyes.**

"Kurt, would you stop fiddling with it? It looks fine!" Rachel slapped Kurt's hand away and took control of the mouse.

"Rachel, can you let me make some last minute changes?" Kurt replied as he tried to reach for the mouse again.

"Kurt, you're not going to be able to get it to look much more like you!" Rachel insisted.

"But I just…I want it to look a little more…manly," Kurt mumbled.

At this, Rachel's mouth dropped open slightly and she turned to face him disbelievingly, "Kurt!" she admonished, "You are perfectly masculine and there is no reason for you to want to change that."

"Oh yes, and that's why you've made your Sim so likeable?" she had the decency to blush, and he cut over the top of her protests by saying, "Diva, I love you, you know that, but you should really have put more points in the overly neat and loud categories."

Rachel looked momentarily outraged, but then conceded with a huff, promising to transfer the points once Kurt had finished. She then looked at Kurt expectantly, but he simply gave her a blank look.

"Rach, I'm not going to change it, it's practically me in Sim-form, albeit a little more fashion challenged. I've always said that there should be a wardrobe expansion pack," Kurt told the tiny brunette, who frowned and stole the mouse back from Kurt.

Before he could wrestle the mouse back from her, she changed the Sim-Kurt back to what he originally was.

"That's more like it Kurt. I love you just the way you are!" Rachel insisted emphatically while Kurt sighed and grumbled, "The eyes aren't right."

"It's the Sims, Kurt, what did you expect?" Rachel laughed and lightly pinched Kurt's elbow.

**A/N This one just seemed to want to end here. As I said, some of them are going to be short, but don't worry, there will be longer ones.**

**Let me know what you think, and also feel free to request songs that aren't on iTunes (for example: 'Le Freak').**


	3. Bartie1

**CHAPTER THREE: I Want To Hold Your Hand**

**Characters: Bartie or Brittie (whichever you prefer)**

**Genre: Romance**

**Summary: When they walked to class, Artie wanted nothing more than to take her hand to show everyone that she's his, but unless he wants his wheelchair to travel in circles, he kind of needs both hands.**

When he was with Tina, it wasn't so bad because she wasn't the PDA type, but Brittany? Well she loved to hold hands. He found this out when they went on their first date and Brittany wouldn't let go of his hand for the entire meal. It made him thank his lucky stars that he had ordered the nachos and not the steak that he was going to get. Every time she went round to his house, they ended up curled on the couch, her hand clenched firmly in his. When he was sitting in Glee, she would take his hand and swing it backwards and forwards gently.

He knew that she would love it if he held her hand to walk her to class, but being in a wheelchair had its limitations. So he couldn't walk her anywhere and he couldn't hold her hand while he was rolling beside her.

He had always had the feeling that Brittany was at least a _little_ smarter than she let on, and this was evidenced by the fact that she had not once asked him to hold her hand in the corridors of McKinley when they were moving. She seemed to understand that it was something that he just could not do. He knew that it had nothing to do with status, because she was perfectly fine with being seen with him in public and she loved it when he wheeled her to class on his lap. He also knew that even though she loved that, she would love it more if he could just hold her hand.

All of this aside, _he_ wanted to hold _her_ hand just as much as she wanted to hold his - he'd always been the affectionate type. He also wanted to send the message to McKinley that Brittany was _his_. Of course it had nothing to do with any petty territorial manliness (well…maybe a little), but it had _more_ to do with the fact that she's a sweet, gorgeous and loyal girl, and he's proud of her.

It slowly but surely became a major pet peeve for him, and every time he was wheeling himself to class beside her, he stared at her hand. He just…he just wanted to reach out and _take it_. But if he got everything he wanted, he'd be _walking_ next to her, not rolling, and lord knows that isn't going to happen.

It's about a month after they start dating that he gets an idea.

He decided to suggest it one day when she was over at his house to watch a movie. Before he got out of the wheelchair to settle himself on the couch, he asked her to sit on his lap. She smiled down at him and acquiesced immediately, throwing her arms around his shoulders.

"Wait, I want to try something," he murmured, and moved her right hand from his shoulder to the right wheel of his chair, "This is going to be a bit awkward at first, but when I say, I want you to push the wheel away from you, like you did when Mr Schue made you all use those wheelchairs. Ready? Ok, and _push_."

The first roll was too soft on her part, so they turned a corner into the couch. He wondered if she thought that he was being stupid, and he was about to tell her not to worry about it, but then she giggled, and looked down at him, "Sorry, I'll push harder next time. Let's go again."

After a few tries, they managed to figure out how hard to push, but they couldn't keep it going in a smooth rhythm. Eventually they gave up and decided to just watch the movie. Brittany didn't let go of his hand for one second.

Every time she came round to his house after that, they practiced tandem-rolling the wheelchair and they actually started to get a little better. Artie could tell that Brittany was trying very hard to be good at this, and he could also tell that her excellent coordination from years of dancing was helping their cause.

About a month after their first attempt, they could successfully two-person roll themselves from one end of Artie's hallway to the other. The first time they managed this, Brittany let out a giant squeal, leapt out of the chair and spun around to high five him, before she threw herself back onto his lap and kissed him hard.

"Artie, we did it! We're the best!" Brittany exclaimed while Artie congratulated her and squeezed her hand in his, "Soon we'll learn how to turn corners and go up ramps and maybe even go faster!"

Artie laughed at her enthusiasm and promised her that they would continue to practice. She seemed to enjoy it at least. He took in her angelic face, hardly believing for a second that he had managed to get a girlfriend as wonderful as her. He wondered if this was just something fun for her or if she knew the motivation behind what they had been practicing for just over a month, so he said, "Brittany…now I can hold your hand when I take you to class."

But then she showed that side of her that made him truly believe that she wasn't just the blonde, blonde cheerleader, when she simply replied, "I know."

The next day at school, the bell rang for class and Artie smiled up at Brittany before she perched herself on his lap. They waited until the hallway had cleared a little bit, because he wanted to share this moment with her and her alone - plus he really didn't care if they were a little late to class. He wrapped his right arm around her waist to capture her left hand in his and then they rolled slowly but surely to the end of the corridor. He unwrapped his hand to turn the corner, but once they had, he took her hand again and she smiled brightly down at him. They rolled to a stop outside her English class and she turned in his lap to pull him into a kiss.

"I love you, Artie," she whispered.

"I love you too, Brittany."

**A/N I absolutely adore Bartie, and hope that they stay canon for a very long time!**

**Let me know what you think, and (again) feel free to request songs that aren't on iTunes (for example: 'Le Freak').**


	4. Berryford1

**CHAPTER 4: I'm A Slave 4 U**

**Characters: Berryford**

**Genre: Romance/Humor**

**Summary: It started with a wager. And ended quite predictably.**

**Spoilers: If you haven't seen Die Hard and you want to, there are some minor spoilers towards the end.**

"Betcha ten bucks that I can make this hoop from the end of my driveway," Matt Rutherford yelled to his second best friend (Mike was his _best _friend), Rachel Berry from the end of his drive where he was cockily dribbling a basketball.

"Matthew, I know that you have quite a strong vocabulary, please don't tarnish it with words like 'betcha'," she clucked her tongue while grinning at him widely, "Besides…you know that I don't gamble with money."

"Fine," Matt grumbled, but then a brilliant idea struck him and he turned back to her with a sly grin, "If I make the basket, then you have to be my slave for a whole day. Starting tomorrow because today is almost over."

"Matthew, haven't I _just_ told you that I don't gamble?" Rachel laughed.

"With money. Yes, but there is no money riding on this. Just slavery," he grinned.

"Slavery is _not_ something to joke about! Millions of people suffer from - " she began, but was quickly cut off.

"Relax Rachel, I didn't mean it. But I can see that you're too afraid that I'll get the basket and _own_ you for a day."

"That is _not_ true! Rachel Barbra Berry is afraid of _nothing_!"

"Really," Matt asked, deadpanned, then raised an eyebrow sceptically.

Rachel looked momentarily flustered, but quickly regained her confidence, "Really!"

"Then prove it. If I get the shot in, you have to be my slave for a week."

"You said a day!"

"Right, yeah…a day, same thing."

Rachel rolled her eyes, but then she sighed and growled, "Fine! But if you miss, then you have to be _my_ slave for a day."

"Fine," Matt smiled.

"Fine," Rachel agreed.

Matt lined himself up to take the shot, and was seconds away from doing so when suddenly Rachel yelled out, "Wait!"

He faltered slightly and looked over at her, clearly annoyed at how she had shattered his concentration.

"Well…I mean aren't there _rules_?"

"Uh, yeah. If I get it in, I win. If I miss, you win."

"But…what about where you are on the end of the driveway. It's sloped, so if you're at that end, you're closer than you would be at the other end," Rachel pouted.

With a sigh, Matt moved to the middle of the drive, "Happy?"

"Well pardon me for being picky, but my future freedom may rest on where you are situated when you take the shot."

"Has anyone ever told you that you are very dramatic? Maybe even…_overly_ dramatic?"

Rachel's eyes widened in feigned shock, "Why, _no_ Matthew. No one has _ever_ told me that!"

They both shared a laugh after that, but then everything became very serious again. Before Rachel could say anything else, Matt looked right at her and said, "And Rachel, for the sake of fairness, you aren't allowed to talk or move from now until _after_ I take the shot. Got it?"

Rachel nodded sombrely, and Matt nearly burst out laughing at how seriously she was taking this, even though she claimed to hate gambling in any form. He turned his attention back to the ball in his hands and then looked back up at the hoop. Had it always been that far away? He could have sworn that it was at least 5 metres longer from this angle (even though it was really only half a metre). He held the ball aloft and took careful aim. As he prepared to take the shot, he moved into a crouch, feeling the power in his body transfer to his legs as he pushed off from the ground and pushed the ball away from his body and towards the tiny hoop on the outside wall of his garage. He watched it sail through the air, almost in slow motion, and a wide grin split across his face when he saw that it was heading straight for the hoop. It hit the rim, circled once…twice…three times…before it teetered for a second…then fell to the wayside, his smile slipping off his face at the exact same time.

He almost didn't believe what he had seen, but then a shriek of "Yes! I _own_ you Rutherford!" from Rachel let him know that, yes, that _is_ what he had seen. He buried his face in his hands as the tiny ball of energy that was Rachel Berry barrelled into his side and hugged him tightly, still chanting, "I won! I won!".

* * *

He woke up the next day at 8 o'clock feeling nervous. He rolled over to see that he already had a new message from Rachel on his phone.

Please arrive at my house promptly at 9 o'clock with a coffee and a blueberry bagel xx

He rolled back into his pillow and grumbled about the awful day he was about to have. What had he gotten himself into?

He quickly showered, got dressed and shovelled down a bowl of cereal. Then he made a hot coffee (with soy milk, of course), pouring it into one of their portable mugs, and heated up a blueberry bagel from the pack that Rachel had left there yesterday. He then hurried out the door at about 9:01, half-running down the street to Rachel's house.

Before he even had the chance to wonder how he was going to knock on the door with his hands full, she answered with a curt, "You're late."

"You're going to have fun with this, aren't you," he grumbled.

"I already am," Rachel replied, flashing him her best don't-be-mad-at-me-it's-your-fault-anyway smile.

* * *

For the rest of the day, if Matt wasn't doing her chores, he was driving her to the music shop. If he wasn't letting her practice her makeup skills on him, he was playing Scrabble with her (something he refused to do when he realised just how extensive her vocabulary actually was. She even had several good uses for the X tile that didn't include x-ray or xylophone).

When it finally got to 4:30, Matt looked up at Rachel from the most recent game of Scrabble and said, "Rachel, it's 4:30, I think we can call it a day now."

She looked up at him with wide eyes, her mouth forming a slight pout, but then it morphed into a cheeky looking grin and she took his chin in one hand shaking his head back and forth in a 'no' motion, "But Matty, you were the one who was so insistent on the 'limited rules' rule. So I guess that means that I own you until 12:01 tomorrow morning."

She then patted his cheek and flounced off to rummage in the board game cupboard again. Matt let out a soft groan and Rachel turned to look at him. The smile slid slightly off her face and she moved back over to him.

"Ok, I'll make you a deal. I can tell that you aren't having much fun," here he raised his eyebrows in a 'no-shit' way, "Matthew! Don't swear! Even if it _is_ just with you're eyes," Rachel chastised, and Matt laughed softly. She continued in a sort of warning voice, "Anyway, what I was going to say was…why don't you pick a movie for us to watch?"

At this, Matt perked up a little, "Whatever movie I want?"

Rachel was going to give him some limitations, but he looked so enthusiastic and cute that she sighed and simply said, "Yes, Matthew, whichever movie you wish to view."

"Just give me a second then," Matt smiled, and was out the door in a flash.

While Matt was gone, Rachel sat down on the couch and took a deep breath. She had had a massive crush on Matt for at least 3 years, and had been his best friend for even longer. She got butterflies every time he smiled at her (she had them so often that they were practically the childhood pet that she had been denied), and she wanted nothing more than for him to profess his love for her, preferably in a public setting with lots of flowers and choreographed performance, wherein he would finally showcase the wonderful voice which she knew that he possessed. But that's not about to happen.

Before she had a chance to think anything else, Matt rushed back in through the door clutching a DVD in his hot little hand. He flashed her a huge smile and waved his copy of 'Die Hard' in the air before he shoved it into the player and flopped down on the couch next to Rachel.

"I must say, I've never seen this movie," Rachel murmured while studying the DVD cover.

Matt nearly choked on the air and spluttered, "You've _never_ seen '_Die Hard_'? Who's never seen '_Die Hard_'? Rach, you haven't lived until you've seen 'Die Hard'."

"All right, I'll watch it if you just stop saying 'Die Hard'," Rachel giggled and made herself comfortable.

Matt threw an arm around her shoulders and pressed play.

* * *

"There's an awful lot of unnecessary swearing in this movie," Rachel grumbled about an hour into the movie.

"It's an action movie, Rach, just roll with it," Matt laughed and ruffled her hair. She made a face, but then her eyes widened in shock as they moved back to the screen.

"Oh no, that man…he's not going to do something stupid, is he?" Rachel asked as Harry Ellis asked to see Hans Gruber.

"Just watch it Rach," Matt smirked.

"But…Matt, I need to know!" Rachel squeaked, "What if something bad happens? Or something scary?"

"It's ok, it's just a movie!" Matt exclaimed with a smile on his face, surprised that she was getting so worked up over it.

"Matthew, I'm still in charge of you, so I order you to let me bury my head in your shoulder because something bad is going to happen to him and I - ARGH!" Rachel let out a scream and threw her face into Matt's chest when she heard the gunshot that killed Harry Ellis.

Matt wrapped a shocked arm around her, "Rach? Hey, what's wrong?"

"He…he got _shot_ Matthew," Rachel mumbled into his chest and he realised that she was actually crying.

"But Rach, you saw like 5 other guys get killed already," Matt tried to reason with her.

"But they were…they were the bad guys…and that guy who _knew_ stuff! But h-he had nothing to _do_ with it! He didn't have to _die_!" Rachel was nearly all-out bawling by that point.

"Rachel," Matt nearly laughed, since he was so surprised at her outburst, "It's ok. It's ok, huh? I-I mean…you... Hey, hey look at me."

She raised her head to look at him and he smiled warmly at her.

"You're so adorable," he whispered, and Rachel looked up at him questioningly, "Well I mean…it's not real life and even if it were, you don't even know the guy, and here you are bawling your eyes out that he got shot -" Rachel mumbled a small protest of, 'He didn't have to die', "- and it's so cute."

"This is why I don't watch movies like this," Rachel murmured, "This is so embarrassing."

"It's not embarrassing. It's endearing," Matt smiled again, placing a small kiss on the tip of Rachel's nose, taking her by complete surprise and causing her mouth to drop open into a small 'o', "What, you thought I wouldn't fall for you? How could I not? You're perfect."

**A/N Come on everybody! Hands in the air! Can I get a WOOP WOOP for Berryford? How cute is this pairing! Just adorable.**

**Let me know what you think, and also feel free to request songs that aren't on iTunes (for example: 'Le Freak').**


	5. Furt1

**CHAPTER FIVE: Can't Fight This Feeling**

**Character: Finn (and a sleeping Kurt)**

**Genre: Humor**

**Summary: His stomach grumbled for the nth time and he wondered if he'd wake anyone up if he went for a midnight snack.**

Time - 2:23AM

Status - Tired, but hungry enough to eat a whole family of horses, but not the baby one, because that's mean

Course of Action - ?unknown?

Finn mentally took stock of his situation as he glanced in the direction of his almost-step brother, Kurt. The soft snores that he could hear let him know that the boy was fast asleep. His eyes had long since adjusted to the darkness in the basement since his growling stomach had woken him about one and a half hours ago. He had almost gone to get a snack, but the floor had creaked underneath him, and he had leapt back into bed, afraid to disturb Kurt. He knew that if he woke Kurt up even a minute before 6:30, then he would be grouchy and bitchy for the rest of the day, and Finn hated grouchy-Kurt.

His stomach growled again and Finn wished that it would just shut up, because if he left it any longer, then Kurt would be woken up anyway. He cursed his carelessness when he remembered that he had only had seconds at dinner, and failed to bring a snack to his room with him. But there wasn't a lot he could do about it now.

Unless…

Your Mission (should you choose to accept it): Sneak upstairs and get yourself some food without waking Sleeping Beauty.

Mission accepted.

Peering across the room again, he wondered if Kurt _would_ wake up if he crossed the room…then climbed the stairs…then walked across the floor upstairs…then came back. One last, especially loud, growl from his stomach let him know that it was just a risk he would have to be willing to take.

He swung his legs over the edge of his bed and tested the floor around him, finding the least creaky section. He took several tentative steps forward, and looked over at Kurt, who was now in full view - he was sound asleep. Looking back at the stairs, he realised that they were a little darker than the rest of the room, which was unfortunate because he had left his football lying there somewhere. He crept carefully over and moved his hands out in front of him to feel around the stairs like a blind man. He quickly located the football, and, rather than move it to some place where he might trip on it later, he skipped the step that it was on.

Finn silently congratulated himself on his relatively silent journey across his room and let out a sigh of relief. But then he looked up. The door was closed - and this door was the noisiest one in the house whole damn house. (Something which Kurt often complained about, yet did nothing to rectify. But in Kurt's defence, Finn never did anything about it either.) Either way, he found himself trapped on one side of a loudest door in the universe while his precious food was trapped on the other. He suddenly imagined himself as Indiana Jones on a very important quest for gold and other riches. Except without the hat. Or whip.

He carefully reached out and grasped the handle, wondering what would be the best course of action. He could open it slowly and steadily and hope that it didn't lead to one big, long, drawn-out creak. This option may be ok though because at least it would be a relatively soft creak. Or he could open it fast and hope that the creak wasn't so loud that it woke the whole neighbourhood. Then again, one quick creak might be better than a really long, slightly softer one. After much deliberation and another growl from his stomach…he decided to go with fast.

He slowly turned the handle…readied himself…then mentally counted…3...2...1...OPEN! He swung open the door and the resulting creak nearly caused him to have a heart attack. He glanced nervously down at Kurt, whose light snoring had ceased. But then Kurt just gave a soft snort and rolled over, his snoring continuing.

Phase One: Complete.

Letting out the breath he had been holding, Finn made his way to the kitchen as silently as he could. He stood in front of the fridge and just stared at the beast - his next challenge. When the fridge was opened, it let out a constant hum, and if it stayed open for a period of longer than 10 seconds, the hum continued well after it had been closed. He had decided on his way up that he wanted a sandwich, so he needed to get the ham, the cheese, the sliced tomato, the hot mustard and the butter all within ten seconds. He quickly went over the layout of the fridge - something he had successfully familiarised himself with - and then flexed his fingers. He threw open the fridge door and grabbed the ham, tomato, mustard and butter all within 5 seconds, but noticed that the cheese had been moved. He quickly closed the door and set his items down on the counter. Turning back around to face the fridge, he stared at the stainless steel door, took another deep breath…then threw it open again, his eyes roving through the various frozen items, before he found the cheese closed the door with one second to spare. It was funny; he couldn't tell you where Sodium was on the periodic table (or even if it was a real element) in the entire length of a set class, but he knew where every single thing in his fridge was.

Phase Two: Complete.

He quickly made and consumed his sandwich.

Phases Three and Four: Complete.

Now for the really hard bit: getting back into his room without waking Kurt…with a full stomach.

His hunger satiated, he tiptoed back over to the door (which he'd had the good sense to leave open) and crept down the stairs once more. But then CATASTROPHE! He stepped right onto the football that he had failed to move. His ankle rolled sideways and his leg fell down a few stairs with a medium-loud thump, causing him to land in an awkward splits-type position. One hand had flung out to the banister, so luckily he hadn't fallen far, but he was sure that Kurt would have woken up at that racket.

However one glace over at the baby-faced fashionista showed him to be sleeping like a baby.

Finn gave a sigh of relief and continued across the room to the comfort and safety of his bed.

Mission complete.

But then…wait…the room was quiet. _Too_ quiet.

"Your ability to get hungry at the most random times really is quite ineffable," Kurt grumbled sternly as Finn's stomach clenched and his heart just about stopped, "I hope you have a wonderful day tomorrow, because I know I won't."

Mission Failed.

**A/N Ah, Furt brotherly love.**

**Drop me a line to let me know what you think, and feel free to suggest songs from Glee that aren't on iTunes :D**


	6. Puckleberry1

**CHAPTER SIX: You're Having My Baby**

**Characters: Puckleberry**

**Genre: Romance/Family**

**Summary: Twenty-four. She's twenty-four and having Noah's child. Her plan was to wait to have sex until twenty-five, but of course she had to make an exception for Noah, because…well she loves him.**

It's a Saturday night and they're sitting on the couch. She's watching TV and he's reading the newspaper with her legs across his lap. It's the first day that Rachel has started her maternity leave from her job as a dance instructor, even though she's nearly eight months pregnant ("I can instruct them without having to actually _do_ it!") and so she's trying to relax as best she can.

She glances from the TV to her protruding stomach and smiles. They're having twins, but they requested not to know the sexes. She lets a small grin slip onto her face as she moves her eyes from her stomach to her husband.

* * *

They had started dating in their senior year of high school, and had never looked back. She had been dubbed by Kurt as 'The Girl Who Tamed the Sex-Shark Jackass'. Two years out of school, she had been pursuing her career as a Broadway actress, but had been absolutely devastated by the news that there was a small tumour growing just inside her trachea. It wasn't cancerous, but they said that if she left, it may grow to be that way. She had cried into Noah's shoulder for three days before she agreed to the operation.

True to her prediction, her voice had just never been the same. She had run back to her fathers and locked herself in her room, not talking to anyone for days. She wouldn't let Brittany, her best friend, near her room and she wouldn't even let Noah in the house. It was only after Santana, of all people, convinced her (through the wood of her door) that she should go back to Noah because he was going psycho without her and Santana could tell that he loved Rachel more than anything in the world because he had refused to sleep with the Latina.

Rachel finally agreed, albeit slightly reluctantly, and travelled back to New York with Santana, where she and Noah had bought an apartment (with some financial help from her fathers). She knocked tentatively on the door and waited for Noah to open it. When he eventually did, she looked up at him apologetically and probably a little bit pathetically. He looked awful. He clearly hadn't shaved in days and she wasn't sure if he'd showered either, because he smelled like sweat and scotch. But the look on his face was one of shock and almost disbelief.

"Rachel," he murmured, his eyes roaming her face like he about to go blind at any second.

"Noah, I…I'm so sorry. I -"

"Marry me," Noah suddenly whispered in a somewhat urgent voice.

Rachel blinked and stared at the man in front of her, "I…wh-what?"

"Rachel, you're the only thing in my life that I would do anything to keep around. You're perfect and I don't know what I did to deserve you, but I can't…I _can't_ lose you. I know you can't sing like you used to, and I know that that kills you, but I want to help you with that. I will stand by you and I will make you happy, and I'll love you until the day I die. I want to put a ring on your finger and call you mine and make you feel like the star you are," Noah insisted almost desperately (a tone which he later denied), "So marry me. Marry me, _please_."

The entire time, Rachel neither spoke nor moved a muscle. But when he finished, she reached out her hands to his shoulders and pushed him softly down. He seemed to understand what she was trying to say, because he sunk down to one knee. As soon as he was on his knee, Rachel nodded softly, tears falling down her face. She nodded and laughed and cried at the same time and wondered why she had been so foolish for the past two weeks.

"Of course I'll marry you," she whispered an pulled him into a kiss.

Noah had pulled her to him and stood up. With her in one arm he lifted her suitcase with the other and walked into their apartment, kissing her over and over, so glad to have her back.

* * *

"Whatcha thinking about?" Noah asks, pulling Rachel out of her memories.

"I'm thinking about how you proposed to me," she smiles, looking at him over her swollen belly, "Your beard was very itchy."

"Don't worry, I'll never grow one again. My chin felt like a sauna," he shudders at the memory.

"That's because it was the middle of Summer!" Rachel laughs.

"Yeah, well, it's never coming back," Noah smiles, and lifts one of her legs to press a kiss to it, "Hey, did you see this article in the paper? It's about Mercedes."

"Her new album?" Rachel asks with a grin, thinking about their old friend, "Let me see."

"Here you go," Noah grins and holds the paper just out of Rachel's reach.

She tries to lean forwards to grab it, but her stomach prevents her from leaning very far. She laughs and hits Noah's closest shoulder.

"Let me see it!" she giggles.

"I am, it's right here."

"Come on, give it here!"

"I'm passing it to you. Just take it."

"This is so not fair!" Rachel exclaims with a grin as she drops back to the couch, rubbing her stomach, "Ugh! I'm like a planet."

"Oh yeah?" Noah grins, "Which one?"

"Jupiter. The biggest one," Rachel huffs, but she's still smiling.

"Well Jupiter is looking mighty fine right now," Noah waggles his eyebrows at his wife: the planet.

"No_ah_! You're supposed to tell me that I'm not a planet at all!" she smacks his arm again, and he pouts at her as he jumps up from his spot on the couch, "It's a good thing I love you. You should count yourself lucky that I can't chase after you right now."

"As if you could ever catch me," Noah scoffs, then kneels down next to her to kiss her stomach and then her lips.

"Noah, take me to bed," Rachel murmurs in his ear.

He smirks at her and then scoops her up, bridal style.

"My, my, you're so strong. Carrying three people at once like this," Rachel laughs softly.

"My three favourite people in the whole world," Noah tells her as he sets her down on their bed.

She watches from the bed as he moves away and pulls off his shirt.

"You're so handsome," she whispers and he turns around to smile at her.

"I think you mean sexy," he grins as he flexes his muscles, "But look at you. You're the sexiest thing I've ever seen."

Rachel blushes like she's 16 again and a grin creeps across her face as she murmurs, "Stop it."

"Not only are you a hot Jew, but you're carrying my badass Jew children. If that's not sexy, then I don't know what is."

Rachel just laughs and says, "Just come to bed Noah. I love you."

**A/N Ah, sweet, sweet Puckleberry. **

**Hope you enjoyed that (especially you LandAmongTheStars).** **But don't worry Finchel fans, I have ideas for Finchel stories too. I don't know when they'll appear but it's shouldn't be too long.**

**Drop me a line to let me know what you think, and feel free to suggest songs from Glee that aren't on iTunes :D**


	7. Kurt1

**CHAPTER SEVEN: Dream On**

**Characters: Kurt (Minor: Finn, Rachel, Sam, Tina, Artie, Mike, Matt, Mercedes, Quinn, Santana, Brittany, Puck, Mr Schue)**

**Genre: Humor, slightly crackish**

**Summary: It's a dream. He knows it is because he's wearing an outfit that he wore last week. Also he's flying.**

He looks down at himself and panics. Didn't he wear this exact outfit just 6 days ago? But then he realises that he wouldn't be this careless, and he deduces that he is currently dreaming. He takes another look around and sees that he is hovering over his childhood house - the one he lived in until he was 5. Without willing himself to do anything, he is suddenly floating down to ground level and into one of the windows.

The inside is much different to how it was in real life, and apparently much bigger. He doesn't remember having three the kitchens, even though he's just floated through three different ones. He's travelling too fast to actually get a good look at anything, but then without warning, he comes to an abrupt halt.

"Oh good! You're here!" he hears a voice from behind him, and as soon as his feet hit the floor, he turns around to see Tina, who is dressed in a man's tuxedo for some reason, smiling at him.

"Uh, yeah. What's…um…what's going on?" Kurt asks.

"The wedding!" she exclaims.

"The…wedding?" Kurt asks, but then he looks down and sees that his outfit has turned into a tuxedo as well, "Who am I marrying?"

"Rachel of course!" Tina smiles, and Kurt's heart stops.

"But…wait, no this isn't right! I'm gay!" Kurt tells Tina in a panic.

She looks at him like he has just told her that he's a dinosaur "Um…yeah, I know."

"So why am I marrying Rachel?" Kurt asks, but Tina doesn't answer him, she just ushers him to the double doors that have just appeared in the wall next to them.

As Kurt tries to escape from her surprisingly tight grip, Tina just smiles serenely. The doors begin to creak open onto a large hall which is decorated exceptionally well. He is about to try to make a run for it, when something occurs to him.

"Wait, why am I the one walking down the aisle?" Kurt asks Tina.

"Well one of you had to," she replies as though it's the most obvious thing in the world.

"Nothing is making any sense here," Kurt grumbles to himself.

But he doesn't have much time to grumble, because Tina is suddenly pushing him down the aisle as the wedding march starts up. As he's walking down, he looks around at the hundreds of chairs set up. Pretty much all of them are empty, except for 10 seats scattered throughout the emptiness, where every single member of Glee Club, minus Rachel and Puck are standing, even Artie, thus reaffirming the dream deduction (as if the rest of this craziness didn't). He feels like he's been walking for hours, so he looks back towards the front…and sees the strangest sight he thinks he will ever see, dream or not. Standing at the end of the aisle is Puck, dressed in what looks to be a pale blue bridesmaid dress, and a boy he has never seen before but immediately knows is Rachel. He (…she?) looks exactly like girl-Rachel but a little bit more man-ish. They have the same nose, the same mouth, the same eyes, the same colour hair, the same height… His chin is a little more pronounced and his hair is cut short and his chest is flatter than girl-Rachel's, but it's obviously Rachel.

He looks around at Tina, his mouth hanging off its hinges, but she is looking at Rachel and smiling, like this is all totally normal, which he supposes it is for this dream-world. He looks back at Rachel and sees that he (she) is grinning at him like a maniac.

Finally they have reached the front and Kurt is standing directly in front of Rachel, who immediately takes his hand and faces the priest, who he is surprised to see is Mr Schue.

"We are gathered here today…" Mr Schue begins but Kurt tunes him out.

He is thoroughly horrified by his brains antics and just wants this dream to end. He glances nervously at Rachel and, again, considers running, but apparently dream-people have freakishly strong grips, because he can't get his hand away from the boy (girl?). Rachel flashes him a look saying 'stop fidgeting', but he doesn't care, because it's just a dream, so even if he breaks Rachel's heart, it's not like he has to face consequences for it.

He tries to voice his protests, especially when Mr Schue says, "Anyone who feels that these two should not be joined together today in holy matrimony should speak now or forever hold their peace," but his voice just doesn't seem to be working.

It's at the moment that Mr Schue says, "You may now kiss the groom," (even though Kurt doesn't recall ever saying 'I do') that his eyes fly wide in panic and he leans as far away from Rachel as possible even though his feet seem to be stuck to the floor. He (she) leans closer to Kurt and closes his (her) eyes. At this point, Kurt's arms won't work either, so he can't even push Rachel away, and his (her) face is getting closer and closer. Just as their lips are about to collide -

- he wakes up, drenched in a cold sweat and tangled up in his sheets. His breathing is slightly erratic and his eyes are darting around nervously, as though Rachel might still be in his room (even though she (he) never actually was). He notices that Finn is sitting up in his bed and staring at him.

"Dude, are you ok? You were movin' around a lot and you kept saying 'Get away from me'," Finn mumbles groggily. Evidently Kurt had woken him up.

Kurt just throws a glare at him and says, "I'm never letting you make me a sandwich before bed ever again."

The next day at school, Kurt keeps shooting slightly nervous glances at Rachel, scared that she might try to force him to marry her. He jumps when he hears Puck's voice saying, "Dude, why do you keep staring at Rachel?"

"You know, Puckerman, you would look very dashing in light blue," he tells the taller boy, as Puck's face contorts into one of confusion and Kurt smirks to himself.

**A/N Totally kept thinking about Umbridge from AVPS when I wrote about Puck in the bridesmaid dress. Oh Joe Walker.**

**Drop me a line to let me know what you think, and feel free to suggest songs from Glee that aren't on iTunes :D**


	8. Finchel1

**Does anyone else hate when Fanfiction changes your formatting randomly? I apologise for the chapters which had strange formatting (e.g random bold or italics). They've been fixed.**

**CHAPTER EIGHT: Billionaire**

**Characters: Finchel!Future**

**Genre: Romance**

**Summary: They lived in a crappy 2-room apartment while she looked for work on the theatre scene, as well as working 2 other jobs and while he worked as a construction worker. Some weeks they lived off basically nothing, but he didn't care, because being with her made him feel like a billionaire.**

Finn lived with his fiancée, Rachel, in a tiny, crappy apartment in New York city. It had only two rooms (three if you counted the bathroom) and the walls were covered in a dull, peeling wallpaper that they couldn't afford to redo. The floor was creaky, as were all three doors, and the buzzer didn't work, so whenever someone came to visit, they had to shout up to the window (luckily they were only on the second floor) if they didn't know where Rachel and Finn kept their spare key. There was a big hole in the wall separating the bedroom from the kitchen/lounge room from the last tenant (a big brute of a man who regularly got drunk and trashed the place), but there was nothing they could do about _that_ either, because, again, they had no money.

All in all, their apartment sucked.

"Finn!" he heard his fiancée call from the bathroom, "Why did you buy the expensive brand of toothpaste?"

He hurried in and she held the toothpaste tube up to him with her other hand on her hip.

"Finn…you know we can't afford the expensive versions of things. I know it might not seem like much, but we are barely scraping by at this point," Rachel said as she made a face at the situation.

"It was on special," Finn told her hurriedly, worried that she would go out and attempt to get a third job. She was stretched thin enough as it was, what with her waitressing on weekends, being a secretary during the week and auditioning for parts whenever she could. He felt bad that he only had one job, but it was the only one he could get. He was holding out for a raise that he was sure he was being considered for, but until that happened, he just had to grin and bear it.

"Oh…ok," Rachel said slowly, "Look, I'm sorry, I know you know the situation. I just…I mean…sometimes I feel like I've already failed as a performer…and a fiancée."

Finn's heart clenched at this, and he pulled his tiny girl to him, "Rach, you're only 23. I know that you haven't gotten any big jobs yet, but that's ok, because you're still young and you have plenty of time to make it big. And you will. There is nothing in my life that I am more sure of than you. And that goes for you as my fiancée too. I love you and you are most definitely _not_ a failure as a fiancée."

"I love you too," Rachel mumbled into his chest, and then leaned back to pull him down into a kiss, "And thankyou."

Finn just kissed the top of her head and pulled her to him again, swaying her slowly side to side.

"Look…I know that this life isn't the greatest right now in terms of success, but there is no other life that I would rather be living, because that might mean that I wasn't engaged to you or living with you. Being with you makes everything that sucks in the world ok, because I love you so much that I just…I don't think I could function properly without you. I mean last time you went to visit your dad's when Hiram was sick, I forgot how the stove worked and I had to order takeaway all three nights. It was a disaster. So this apartment might not be the nicest, and we might not have our ideal jobs, and sometimes we can't have all the things we want, but none of that matters, because I know that one day we _will_ have those things. You'll become a huge star, and I'll be a famous drummer in an awesome band. But even if I don't become a famous drummer, that won't matter, because I'll be married to you. You're my everything, Rachel, I hope you know that," Finn murmured to her as they swayed.

"I'm so lucky to have you," Rachel mumbled.

And so they slowly swayed in their tiny, crappy bathroom, in their tiny, crappy apartment with the creaky floors and the broken buzzer and the hole in the wall.

**A/N I feel bad that this is short… Well don't worry, there will be other Finchel drabbles, just sit tight and they will come.**

**Drop me a line to let me know what you think, and feel free to suggest songs from Glee that aren't on iTunes :D**


	9. Archel1

****

CHAPTER NINE: I'll Stand By You

**Characters: Archel!friendship, eventual romance**

**Genre: Tragedy/Friendship/Romance**

**Summary: An accident leaving her paralysed from the waist down forces her to take stock of her life and the people in it. After all, there's only one person (two if you count Sean) who gets what she's going through.**

The new school year had started back nearly two weeks ago and they had been practicing a new song in the April Rhodes Civic Pavilion when it had happened. Rachel had been at the front, singing with Finn, when she performed a perfect pirouette away from him (she had requested that they utilise her ballet skills at least once). Everything had gone wrong, however, when she had slipped on a small puddle of water near the edge of the stage. She tried to stop before she fell, but she didn't stop in time and went toppling over the edge. The entire Glee Club flinched when they heard a metallic clunk and dull thump almost simultaneously. Finn rushed over to her to help her up, but no one else moved - it wasn't a huge distance to the floor after all, right? It was when Finn gasped and yelled, "Rachel!" that the rest of Glee hurried over to see what had happened.

Rachel had landed on top of a large, metal toolbox that had been left on the floor, most likely by the janitor. That wouldn't have been cause for alarm, but she had landed such that her back was arched in an awkward way over the metal case. She must also have hit her head hard on the floor because she was out cold and there was a bit of blood pooling on the floor underneath it.

Mr Schue had also hurried down from the desk to see what had happened, and when he saw Rachel, he immediately ordered for no one to touch her and for someone to call for help. By the time the ambulance got there, the Glee Club had been asked to leave the room by Mr Schue. He remained in there with her as the paramedics carefully transferred her to a stretcher and put a neck brace on her. They wheeled her out of the room and Finn immediately shot over, "Is she ok? Will she be ok?"

"We're not exactly sure of the extent of her injuries yet, son. We just need to get her to hospital as fast as possible so that we can see what the problem is," one EMT told him, and then they continued to rush down the corridor with Rachel.

* * *

Three weeks later, Rachel had been told that due to the way that her back had hit the very edge of the solid toolbox, her spinal cord had been severed when her spine broke in two places, and she would never walk again. She had also suffered a fracture to her skull, and so she had to stay in hospital for about a month and a half while her injuries healed. For two weeks after that, she refused to see anyone except her fathers. It was at the end of those two weeks that Artie had wheeled himself into the hospital and asked her fathers to allow him entry into her room. They had done so reluctantly, and so the boy had wheeled himself in while her fathers went to the cafeteria. She had expressly ignored him, and he hadn't pushed conversation or anything like that, he just sat there, holding her hand.

This continued for the next week and a half, until Rachel finally turned her head to face him, tears streaking down her face, "How did you deal with?"

He looked up at her, squeezed her hand in what he hoped was a comforting way and said, "It's hard. I mean…it's going to take time. I'm not going to say that I know exactly how you're feeling, because I don't - everyone's different - but I _kinda_ do, and I want to help you Rachel. I'm going to be there with you every step of the way, if you'll let me."

* * *

When they released Rachel from hospital, it didn't really make that much of a difference, because she was back there so regularly for therapies and 'what-have-you's that it was like she had never left. Artie, true to his word, helped her through everything, and even on her really bad days (of which there were a _lot_), she would still let him come round, even if she wouldn't talk to him. While she had been in the hospital, her fathers had bought a new, one-story house and had put the other one up for lease. She supposed that she was lucky that she and her fathers were quite well-off, financially speaking. This new house was pretty wheelchair friendly, but thinking about that just made her angry, rather than grateful, because she shouldn't _need _a wheelchair friendly home. She should be able to use her legs. She should still be able to dance and perform and…and be a _star_. But she had slowly been resigning herself to the fact that that was off the cards by that point. She had not spoken to Artie about any of this, because speaking about it meant it was real.

"When do you think you're coming back to school Rach?" Artie asked her when they were hanging out one day.

"Artie…can I ask you something?" Rachel murmured softly, ignoring his question.

"Sure Rach, anything," he said, looking up from the teddy that he had just picked up from her bedside table.

"Where does your feeling stop?" she asked, somewhat bluntly, but she knew that he wouldn't mind.

Artie smiled, glad that she had asked that, because at least she was willing to talk about being in a wheelchair - something she had not yet done.

"I can't feel anything below here," he said pointing to a spot just above his hip, "What about you?"

She silently pointed to a point much higher, about 5cm above her bellybutton, "It's…strange. It seems like I can still feel them," she murmured, referring to her legs, "Like sometimes it feels like they hurt…and I get excited…but then it stops and I…it crushes me."

Artie nodded in understanding, "It's called Phantom Limb Syndrome. Amputees and people with paralysis can have that. It's where you're so used to feeling the limb there that your brain can fabricate pain, even if you can't actually feel it. I had that. My cat had it too. He had his front leg amputated when he got run over, and for weeks afterwards he kept falling over because he thought he could feel his leg there and he kept trying to use it."

"Does it get easier?" Rachel asked, choking back a sob.

"Oh Rach," Artie murmured as he wiped away some of her tears and took her hands in his, "It'll get easier. I promise."

* * *

Three months later, Rachel and Artie had become more or less inseparable. Where you found one, you were bound to find the other. Rachel had been doing much better in the chair as she got used to it. Glee had been difficult when she started back, but they had thrown her a 'Welcome Back' party, and she had loved every minute, because they had actually missed her, even Santana (though Rachel knew she'd deny it to anyone else). Sectionals was approaching, and they had all agreed while she was gone that she would be singing a duet with Artie as one of their songs ("But that's the only solo you get, Diva. We're not going to give _all_ of them to you," Mercedes had teased, and Rachel had given a small smile).

When she had gotten home that afternoon, she had cried into Artie's shoulder as they sat on the couch. This wasn't how her life was supposed to go. It was so difficult for her to just sit there while everyone else danced around her (she had not yet mastered dancing in the wheelchair like Artie had - Proud Mary had not adequately prepared her, because then she had been able to use her legs at least a bit to move the wheelchair better).

"Hey Rach," Artie murmured, lifting her chin so that she was facing him, even though she still kept her eyes down, "Hey, look at me. You're amazing Rach. You're my best friend, and you're _ab_solutely amazing. I know that it sucks not being able to dance like you used it, it sucks nuts…and I'm not going to say that that's ok, because obviously it's making you upset…but I just…I want you to know that there are so many other wonderful things about you and awesome things you can do."

Rachel didn't reply, she just closed her eyes as a few more tears fell. She felt Artie move a bit more so that his arms were around her shoulders and her head was resting in the crook of his neck.

"Oh, why you look so sad?" he suddenly whispered in her ear, "Tears are in your eyes, come on and come to me, now."

Rachel wrapped her arms around him as the words turned into a song that she knew quite well.

"Let me see you through, cos I've seen the dark side too," he was singing softly. Rachel buried her face further into his neck and inhaled his scent, which she had grown to love, "And when the night falls on you, you don't know what to do, nothing you confess…will make me love you less…I'll stand by you. I'll stand by you. Won't let nobody hurt you, I'll stand by you."

She listened to him sing the entire song to her, and by the time he had finished, she had cried all the tears that she needed to cry. She looked up at him through still-watery eyes and moved her hand to cup his cheek, "You're amazing too, Artie. Did you know that?" he smiled at her, "Amazing."

Before she had the chance to do or say anything else, his mouth was suddenly moving on hers. She reciprocated almost immediately and wrapped her arms around him tighter.

* * *

Four years later, when Rachel finally said, 'I do', he wheeled them out of the church, her perched on his lap (they had practiced at home so that she wouldn't fall off). They had their first dance, again, in Artie's wheelchair, to 'I'll Stand By You', and Rachel couldn't have been happier.

**A/N Yes, I know, I'm doing a lot of romances at the moment, but that's because I'm still trying out pairings and whatnot. Either way, I find Archel a very cute pairing, whether it be friendship or romance, and I would love it if their ship-base was a little larger :D**


	10. Puck1

**CHAPTER TEN: Smile (Charlie Chaplin)**

**Characters: Puck!char death, Rachel, Finn, Santana, rest of Glee**

**Genre: Tragedy**

**Summary: Killed by a brain tumour, Puck's death forces some of the Gleeks to band together while others just become despondent and isolated.**

It had been difficult to see him in his last few weeks. He had been losing weight rapidly, his once handsome face had become gaunt and hollow, his guns had weakened and disappeared…he looked every bit as ill as he was. They had found the brain tumour after he had started getting headaches even when he hadn't been drinking. Then one day at football practice, he'd been tackled and just hadn't gotten up. When the ambulance arrived after they found that he was unconscious, they found that his pupils were over-dilated. Within the hour, he had been taken to hospital and was having every neurological test under the sun done to him. They found out that it was a very aggressive, cancerous tumour, and he really didn't have long to live. They gave him a month.

He ended up lasting for over two.

* * *

He told his ma that he wanted to keep going to school, because nothing stops the Puckerone, but truth be told, he was just scared to be alone. He even agreed to go to Temple on Sundays, where he would spend all of his time with Rachel, who was also at his house every other day, sometimes with Finn, and sometimes alone. Finn had started turning up at his house quite regularly too. When Puck stopped going to school, Finn often skipped so that he could go and see his bro. Puck's mum never told him that he should be at school, and neither did anyone else. Rachel even joined him a few times.

When Puck had started to stay home, Santana went crazy. Anyone who so much as looked at her funny was given such a powerful glare that their skin nearly melted off their face, and god help anyone that looked directly into her eyes. About a week after he stopped coming to school, Tina came across Santana sobbing in a bathroom. Though they had never even talked directly to one another, not even in Glee, Tina pulled the girl into a hug, and she was so distraught that she just accepted it. The two were often seen together after that.

Brittany was also taking it surprisingly hard. Artie was basically glued to her side. And since Santana and Brittany were so close, they quickly became quite a close foursome - Santana, Brittany, Tina and Artie. They sat together at lunchtimes and in Glee (which had become more of just a free period), and were always seen together in the halls between classes.

Santana skipped once a week when Puck started staying home so that she could see him. Usually neither of them said much at all, and Finn and Rachel knew not to go round when she was there - they respected that. In his last week, when he really took a turn for the worst, Rachel, Finn and Santana didn't even go to school at all. The rest of the Gleeks found it difficult to pay attention in class, mostly because they stopped trying. They were just so scared and worried for the only guy in Glee who seemed indestructible. They just couldn't fathom that he was lying in bed, unable to move, slowly dieing.

Mike and Matt visited Puck every other weekend, bringing round video games and that sort of thing. At school, they just seemed kind of lost and alone until one day Mercedes approached them after Glee. She didn't even really say anything, she just told them, "You can cry if you want." They had both burst into tears at that. Both of them had known Puck since they were in the third grade, and this was really affecting them as well. Mercedes had held both of their hands, pulling them both into a hug, and so another group formed.

That sort of left Kurt and Quinn on the outside of everything. But it didn't seem to bother them, because they had sort of formed their own twosome anyway. Quinn confided in Kurt that she was worried that Puck hated her, and Kurt became her pseudo-counsellor because that was part of the process of how _he_ dealt with things.

* * *

Rachel, Finn, Santana, Puck's ma, Yvette, and his sister, Sarah, were all arranged round his hospital bed when his heart stopped beating. Rachel threw her arms around Sarah and Yvette as both Sarah and Rachel burst into tears and Yvette went completely numb. Santana quietly slipped from the room before anyone noticed her get up, and Finn wrapped his arms around the three girls. The small group sat thus for at least another ten minutes before anyone moved. A doctor had come in to unplug the machines surrounding Puck, and Rachel and Finn stood, said their last goodbyes to Puck, then silently left so that Yvette and Sarah could say their goodbyes.

Once outside the hospital, Rachel looked up at Finn, tears still streaking down her face, and set off down the street since her house was only a few blocks over. Finn debated whether or not to stay to help Yvette and Sarah, but at that moment, he realised that there was nothing that he could do. Besides…he didn't think he could handle supporting someone else at that time.

* * *

Finn didn't see Rachel again until the funeral. She looked like she hasn't slept since it happened, which he could relate to - he hadn't either. She looked over at him, caught his eye, and then looked away again. She sat with her fathers on one side and Puck's mother and sister on the other. Finn sat on the other side of Puck's little family. He looked forwards again and fixed his eyes on Puck's casket. He couldn't believe that Puck was in there. He was…he was _so close_. It wasn't right.

Rachel remained firmly planted in her seat from the moment she arrived, moving only to hug Yvette and Sarah (whose little hand she held throughout almost the entire funeral). The only other time she moved was when she stood up to make her speech.

"I've known Noah for…well for nearly 12 years now. We met when I was four, and he was four, and we had both been taken to Temple for the first time. I remember that while we were there, I accidentally got separated from my dads. I was crouched in the corner because I had been taught to wait for my parents to find me, but Noah found me first. He gave me this…this _huge_ smile and held out his hand and said 'Come with me, I know where your daddies are'. I felt so safe with him, so I clutched his hand and I followed him and he led me right to my frantic fathers. The whole time we were there, I never let go of his hand after that. At the end of Temple, when it was time to go home, Noah turned to me and said 'We should be friends' and I said yes and then he smiled and said 'Good cos you're hot'," here a few people gave soft chuckles, "That was the beginning of the boy that we all know well," she paused here, tears streaking down her face, and it was obvious that this was where her speech was going to become more serious, "Noah was like a brother to me…and I -" she broke off momentarily when her voice failed her, but then she took a deep breath and continued, "- I can't…imagine a world without him, so I wish to God I didn't have to live in it. Noah will be remembered…f-forever and I -" here she broke off again, trying so hard to maintain some semblance of control, but she just couldn't and so simply said, "I'm sorry," and slid off the stage and back into her seat. Sarah grabbed her hand as soon as she was sitting down again and Rachel squeezed it once, but didn't look over at her.

As soon as everything was over, Rachel left with Yvette and Sarah. She stayed throughout the entire period of Shiva, and cooked for the two Puckerman girls. Her fathers came over every other day, but they understood why she stayed there and so nothing was said about the arrangement.

A week after the funeral, everyone had gone back to school except for Finn and Rachel. No one had seen Rachel, even when they had visited Puck's house for Shiva. Finn had been there a lot, though, so he had probably seen her. Either way, the groups that had formed when Puck was sick had stayed more or less in tact. Tina, Artie, Brittany and Santana were still regularly seen together. Kurt and Quinn were often found in a back corner of the library at lunch and in shared free periods. Mike, Matt and Mercedes were likewise often sitting at the same table at lunch, or very close together in Glee. Of course they all still talked, but the groups remained very distinct. Even Mercedes and Kurt drifted apart until they rarely spoke outside of school.

A few weeks after _that_ and Finn had come back to school. He had clearly lost weight and he was being quite anti-social. He never answered questions in class (not that he really had before) and only spoke if someone talked very directly to him. He quit football and Glee (which had sort of deteriorated anyway), and drifted along without doing much of anything. It ended up taking him almost a month and a half to snap out of this heavy depression and start actually talking to people.

Rachel didn't return to school until several weeks after Finn had. The most popular rumour was that she had gone temporarily insane and had spent the last few weeks in an asylum. Though she would never tell anyone, it was close as close as you could get to the truth without actually telling it. She had gone into a phase of not acknowledging anyone or anything and not getting up out of bed except to go to the bathroom. It was one day when her fathers had found her stick-thin body collapsed in her bathroom that they rushed her to hospital. She stayed there for three nights before she could be released. Her fathers took her to three different psychiatrists to try and get her to at least say something, but nothing seemed to be working. Four weeks after his death, when Hiram and Leroy were still completely at a loss as to how to help their daughter, they went up to her room to see her, but found that she was not there.

Frantic, they raced around the house looking for her, but thought that perhaps they had an idea of where she might be. It didn't take them long to find her - she had gone to see _him_. They knew that it was her when they heard her quavering voice shouting obscenities at his tombstone. Sure enough, they rounded the corner to where he was buried and there she was, shouting, "- promised you'd never leave me! I hate you! I hate you! Fuck you Noah Puckerman! Don't make me live without you! Please! You jerk!"

They rushed over to her and pulled her into a hug as she dissolved into hysterical sobs. She sounded so full of anguish and so distraught that they knew that she was never going to recover from this…not fully.

Years later, Mike, Matt and Mercedes, all of whom remained in Lima, were still best friends. Quinn and Kurt had started a fashion line together. Santana, Tina, their partners, and Brittany and Artie got together every week for dinner. Finn got married to the girl next door to his apartment, Hannah. And Rachel became a bestselling author.

Mike, Matt and Mercedes placed flowers on his grave every year on his birthday and the anniversary of his death. Quinn and Kurt had named their brand Haon, which was Noah backwards. Santana, Tina, their partners, and Brittany and Artie toasted Puck at the beginning of each meal. Finn and Hannah named their first-born son Noah. And Rachel dedicated every single one of her books to 'Noah 'Puck' Puckerman; my best friend and honorary brother'.

_Noah Puckerman_

_July 23, 1994 - November 15, 2010_

_Beautiful son, brother & friend_

_~ Never forgotten ~_

**A/N I felt terrible writing this :( Poor Puck. Also I'm from Australia, so if the date at the bottom doesn't make sense with American schooling dates then just tell me and I'll change it :D**

**Well let me know what you think.**


	11. Berryford2

**CHAPTER ELEVEN: You Keep Me Hangin' On**

**Characters: Berryford!unrequited**

**Genre: Humor/Romance**

**Summary: Someone challenged him to a 'hold-on'. He doesn't think he's going to win, but then he sees her in the crowd of kids that have gathered and that gives him the strength. Eternal glory, here he comes.**

A 'hold-on' is simple enough. Anyone can challenge another kid to a 'hold-on'. They've been known to settle disputes, assert dominance, impress girls, anything that has two or more possible outcomes can be settled with a 'hold-on'.

The rules are fairly basic. All or both kids get a good hold on the bar, then they both swing down so that they are hanging, or 'holding on'. The kid who can hold onto the bar for the longest without slipping, falling, or adjusting wins. The reason that they were so popular was that they could be used for so many reasons, and they weren't technically doing anything wrong, so they couldn't get into any form of trouble (as long as none of the teachers found out they sometimes bet money). _Plus_, they also had that added bonus of manliness, because you really did have to be quite strong if you wanted to be a serious contender in a 'hold-on'.

Matthew Rutherford had never actually participated in a 'hold-on' but he knew that Puck had, so when Daniel Levy challenged him and three other guys to one, he went to him to ask what it was like.

"What's it for?" was Puck's first question.

"Daniel challenged me, Driscoll, Ben and James for fun. There's twenty bucks from each of us riding on it, so whoever wins the challenge wins a hundred bucks," Matt replied.

"Well I guess it depends on the day you do it. I've done two. One of them was last year in the middle of summer, you remember the one we had at the park, and it was stinking hot. There were seven of us and four of 'em dropped within five minutes 'cos it was so fucking hot. If you get a hot day, then you better hope that you don't sweat like a bitch, 'cos it hurts and it gets slippery and you can't hold onto the bar. But if it's a cold day, and you're on a metal bar, that shits gonna get cold, and your muscles are gonna freeze up real quick until your arms feel like they're gonna fall off," here Puck paused, as if contemplating. Then looked over at Matt and said, "Well, good luck with it then."

And then he moved to walk away. Matt sat, confused for a moment, and then looked back at Puck and said, "Hey, wait, don't you have any advice for me?"

"What?" Puck asked as he turned around, then realised what Matt was asking, "Oh, uh…don't fall off?"

"Yeah thanks a lot," Matt laughed, "I'll keep that in mind."

* * *

The next day, Matt could tell that word had spread quickly about the impending 'hold-on' because people were actually looking at him. Usually he was invisible…but not that day. Oh no, he was a champion today.

In first period, a group of girls even looked over at him and waved flirtatiously. He smiled back, but didn't encourage them, because he only had eyes for one girl in that school…and she barely even knew he existed even though they shared an extracurricular activity. Either way, he wondered if maybe today she would be at the 'hold-on' at lunch and then fall madly in love with him when he won. Maybe.

He cruised through his day, lunchtime seeming to get closer and closer much more quickly than it should have. When it finally arrived, he immediately went down to the oval where the chin-up bars were. The other guys had all beaten him there and they all greeted him with friendly 'hello's. He threw his twenty bucks down on the small table next to the bars where Emily, one the other guys friends, was keeping the cash together for the winner. A crowd was already gathering around them when Matt took his jumper off and sized up the other guys. His plan was more or less not to fall off first or second, and to last longer than ten minutes. Anything after that and he probably not going to receive too much of a ribbing from the general populus of McKinley.

About ten minutes after the lunch bell had rung, Brendan, a large jock of a boy yelled out, "We'll get started then! We'd like a nice, clean 'hold-on' today boys, so if you'll each choose a bar and get comfortable, we can start."

The boys all chose a bar - Matt chose the one on the far left - and stood on the boxes underneath the bars. Matt was actually quite amused by how seriously everyone was taking this, and how much effort had gone into it. Nevertheless, he grasped the bar and bent down so that his arms were straight. He looked around the crowd and saw that there were probably over a hundred kids there. But suddenly he was hearing, "Go!" and he had to start hanging there. The box was taken away and he realised just how hard this was going to be. He closed his eyes and took himself away to a place where he wasn't hanging half a metre off the ground in some stupid assertion of manliness.

When he next opened his eyes, he vaguely heard someone yell, "Five minutes!"

His arms were getting sore by that point and he chanced a glance sideways at the other boys. James' face had turned an odd shade of red and Matt could see that he was having trouble, but the other boys looked ok. Before he even had the chance to look back to the front, James fell off to many boos from the crowd. He had barely even noticed that they were cheering, but they were…and quite loudly too. He didn't know how he'd missed it.

As he glanced out at the crowd, his eyes suddenly locked onto the chocolate hair of Rachel Berry, the girl he was madly in love with. She had just wandered over to the crowd, curious, and had looked up at Matthew, looking slightly surprised. They locked eyes and she smiled brightly at him, offering a small wave. He grinned back and internally felt his pride muscle flex. Suddenly his arms didn't hurt quite so much. He closed his eyes again and imagined himself and Rachel away to a secluded area where he could profess his love for her. He imagined kissing her and staring romantically into her eyes and being in love with her, and laying her down, and taking off her shirt, and -

Suddenly some very loud boos met his ears and he opened his eyes and looked to see that Driscoll and Ben had fallen off. So it was down to Daniel, two bars away from Matt, and Matt himself. He took a deep breath just as Brendan yelled, "Ten and a half minutes!"

Matt had fulfilled both his initial criteria, and so would have been happy, but when he had seen Rachel watching him, he had changed his criteria to 'Win at all costs'. He faced back to the front and noticed just how much his arms were burning. He was so tempted to adjust, but knew that he would be disqualified. However, he suddenly heard, "And we have a disqualification for adjusting!"

He hadn't adjusted his hands subconsciously, had he? Oh no.

But then suddenly Brendan yelled, "And the winner is Matthew Rutherford!"

As this processed through his excited brain, he let go of the bar and the crowd let out a cheer. Emily passed him the hundred bucks, about ten different guys came up to clap him on the back. He smiled at them all, but then whirled around quite quickly when he heard Rachel's voice behind him say, "Well done Matthew."

"Um…uh…thanks," Matt grinned and scratched his head awkwardly.

"I'll see you in Glee then?" Rachel smiled again.

Matt just nodded dumbly as Rachel flounced off and he managed to whisper, "Yeah...yeah."

Matt stared after her, wishing he could make her his. If only she knew what she did to him.

**A/N Oh Rachel you silly girl. Stop chasing Finn and go and find out where Matthew moved to so that you can begin the perfect romance!**

**And for anyone that doesn't know, a 'hold-on' is a real thing. I've seen one :)**


	12. Changford Friendship1

**CHAPTER TWELVE: Total Eclipse of the Heart**

**Characters: Matt, Mike**

**Genre: Bromance/Hurt/Comfort**

**Summary: When Matt moved away, a piece of Mike died a little inside. It was the end of an era. The end of a true bromance.**

It had been so abrupt. One minute they were mucking around with the football in Mike's backyard and Mike had asked what was up with Matt and then Matt had just come out and said, "I'm moving."

At first it hadn't been such a big deal - Matt had moved house before. He had moved from one side of town to the other. Mike lived in the middle of Lima, so the only difference to him was the way he turned out of his driveway. He figured that this move was just like that one, so when he asked 'where to' and Matt replied 'London', Mike had completely missed the football that Matt had thrown and it hit him right in the face. He didn't hear Matt's apologies because he was in total shock.

Things like that didn't happen. They just didn't. A best friend didn't move halfway across the globe without first discussing it with the other half of the best-friend-ship. It's in the Bro Code. Probably.

"Dude…are you ok?" Matt asked almost worriedly, "Look man, I'm really sorry I'm just saying it now, but…I was…I wasn't sure how you'd take it."

Mike just looked up at him helplessly from where he had just sat down on the ground hard.

"I'm really sorry Mike," Matt murmured as he sat down next to the Asian boy, "Can you just…say something?"

"How can you just…move so far away? And you just say it like we haven't known each other since we were three and we're not best friends, come _on _man, that's not _cool_," Mike ground out as he tried to comprehend the fact that he was not going to be seeing his best friend in the whole world for a very long time, "When…when are you moving?"

Matt paused here and Mike's stomach clenched a little, as did his heart, "Uh…two weeks from now."

Mike's eyes widened, and he felt rage boil inside him, "Two weeks? You're leaving for England in two _weeks_? And you...when were you going to tell me _this_? You can't...you can't spring this kind of shit on me, man," tears were starting to form in his eyes by this point and he tried, unsuccessfully, to blink them away. His mouth hung open as he tried to think of something else to say, but his brain wouldn't form coherent sentences to send to his mouth.

"I'm sorry," Matt whispered. He figured that he owed Mike an explanation, so he quickly added, "It's…it's because my dad was offered a position there. A really good one. Said he'd be stupid not to take it. I…I wanted to beg him not to, but he really needs this, you know? Since mum left him, he's been…it hasn't been great. I just…I'm really, _really_ sorry. I need you to understand that, because I…I love you man. You know…in a platonic way. Like a bromance."

Watery hazel eyes found watery brown eyes, and suddenly Mike had pulled Matt in for a hug.

"I hate you so much, you fucking traitor," Mike half-sobbed into Matt's shoulder. He would have been embarrassed that he was crying, but things were different with Matt - he wasn't just a bro, he was the _ultimate_ bro. They had been through so much together; pre-school, kinder, little league, the birth of Mike's little brother, girls (not, like, at-the-same-time together, cos' that's not how they roll), high school, Matt's parents' divorce, everything. Mike couldn't imagine life without him. He was practically a brother. He _was_ a brother.

But that was ending and there was nothing that either of them could do about it.

**A/N I want to kill them for getting rid of Matt so quietly. The boy barely had any lines ever! It was sad. They should at **_**least**_** have told us where he went (unless they did and I just missed it…?).**

**Anyway, you know the drill, let me know what you thought of this drabble :D **

**p.s Contemplating transforming this one big story into many little complete drabbles. Opinions?**


	13. Cherry2

**CHAPTER THIRTEEN: No Air**

**Characters: Cherry + families**

**Genre: Tragedy/Tragedy**

**Summary: Their families were quite close, since they lived next door to each other, and they're going on their annual holiday. This year's destination is Caves Beach, which is a ten hour drive from Lima, Ohio. Devastation hits both families before the holiday ends.**

**Note: Caves Beach isn't a real beach (or if it is, it's not intentionally like that, it would just be a lucky guess). Also this story is definitely not a happy one, so if you don't want to read about death, I suggest reading a different drabble.**

"Michael!" Rachel smiles as she drags her suitcase to the front steps, "Would you mind giving me a hand with this?"

"Wait, this your only suitcase? I thought girls always packed, like, a hundred suitcases when they go away! It's practically a documented phenomenon," Mike laughs and hoists her suitcase down the stairs and into her car.

"Michael, how long have you known me?" Rachel grins, "I am always very organised, and I have successfully managed to pack two weeks worth of holidays essentials into that suitcase through the use of space-bags and careful, tetris-like arrangement."

The two families had been going on joint holidays since Rachel and Mike were babies, but this was the biggest holiday yet. They were going to Caves Beach, which was ten hours out of Lima, and they couldn't be more excited. Rachel had been making plans for this trip for the last three months, something which her very _un_organised boyfriend, Mike, was glad of. _He_ had not made _any_ plans, so when Rachel provided him with a list of things to take, he had followed it scrupulously, packing everything she told him to - even the logbook (well she called it a diary), though he knew that it wouldn't get used. Rachel had never been to the beach before, hence the excitement, and the thought of seeing the deep, blue ocean had kept her up the whole night before they were due to leave.

"Mike, will you be riding in our car, or will Rachel be going in yours?" Leroy Berry asks the Asian boy.

"I think I'll be coming in your car. My parents still haven't gotten over Rachel's 'Holiday Mixed CD'. They aren't huge musical fans," Mike laughs, and Rachel's fathers join in while Rachel blushes and pushes Mike into the back seat, then climbs in after him.

Rachel falls asleep on Mike's shoulder about an hour in, probably because of her lack of sleep from the night before, but they wake her up when they stop for a break another hour after that. When they clamber back into the car, Rachel insists that they play 'I Spy', even though Mike thinks she cheats.

"Michael, it's not cheating if you just don't know what I'm spying," Rachel pouts.

"How was I supposed to get _ungulate_?" Mike half yells, though he's smiling.

"There's a giraffe right there on the book! Everyone knows that an ungulate is a hoofed animal," she tells him, as though it's the most obvious thing in the world, and he just kisses the top of her head and tells her that he refuses to play 'I Spy'. Ever.

Five hours into the trip, they stop for lunch and Rachel tells Mike that his CD is boring and that they should put hers back on when they start driving again. Mike suddenly stands up and runs back over to the car. Rachel can't quite see what he's doing, but when he turns back to her holding her CD, her mouth drops open and she rushes towards him, holding her hands out in front of her, waving them around like a maniac.

"Don't you touch my CD! Don't hurt it! You'll be sorry if you so much as scratch it!" Rachel yells and chases him around as he runs away from her waving the CD above his head. Rachel's fathers and Mike's parents and little brother all laugh at the scene in front of them.

"Ok, ok," Mike yells as he stops and Rachel nearly runs into him. He holds the CD high above his head and says, "I'll give you back your CD if we can listen to mine for a while when we get back into the car."

Rachel thinks for a moment, and then scowls, "But if we put yours on, you'll never let me turn it off."

"I will, I promise," Mike grins.

Rachel scowls again and gives a firm, "No."

"I guess I'll just have to break your CD then," Mike tells her quite seriously.

"You wouldn't," Rachel murmurs, eyeing the CD almost fearfully.

"Try me," Mike smirks.

"Give it back! I refuse to listen to your CD!" Rachel yells, and suddenly Mike has snapped her CD in half.

Rachel stands there, gaping at what he has just done. She seems to be at a loss for words, and for a moment he thinks that he may have gone too far, but then she shoots another scowl at him, something she only does when she's just a little bit annoyed. Then she says, "You're lucky I brought three more of those," and flounces back to the two families still eating lunch.

They drive the rest of the way to the beach houses without stopping, except for toilet breaks, and Mike immediately runs in to claim the best room before his brother can steal it. Unfortunately he discovers that it's a two bedroom house, so he has to share two room with the two single beds. Rachel runs to the window of their beach house to see the ocean. Unfortunately for her, it's dark and late. So Rachel, after admitting that she can't see the beach anyway, decides to go straight to bed so that she can wake up early tomorrow morning and go straight down there with Michael.

* * *

She wakes up the next morning at about 7:30, since she set an alarm on the clock, and runs down to the kitchen to eat a quick breakfast. Her fathers are already down there and they tell her to be careful when she goes down and that they'll be down soon. She nods and tells them she loves them and then runs to the house next door. Michael's mother answers and she tells Rachel that Mike hasn't woken up yet. She lets Rachel in anyway, and she runs straight into his room. She jumps onto his bed, and on top of him.

"Ugh…wassup…wassa matta'?" Mike mumbles into his pillow.

Rachel kisses his cheek and says, in an overly bright voice, "Let's go and see the beach!" then she wrinkles her nose and adds, "But brush your teeth first. You have morning breath."

She grabs Mike's hand and pulls him out of his bed, making sure to not wake Mike's brother.

"How come he gets to sleep in?" Mike grumbles, and Rachel just beams at him. He sighs and says, "You're lucky I love you."

"I love you too, Michael," Rachel replies adoringly.

Mike shovels his breakfast down as Rachel bounces eagerly by his side, then when he's done, she lets him get dressed. She all but pulls him out of the house the moment his shirt is over his head. She runs, with him in tow, down the small pathway between the beach houses that they are staying in, and as soon as they pass the bushes, she gasps.

They have a perfectly clear view of the beach, and it's absolutely beautiful. To the left, the sand stretches quite far, and to the right, the rocks, containing a maze of caves, go round the headland. She runs onto the actual beach and giggles when she feels the sand between her toes. She spins around to Mike, who is running over to her, smiling.

"This is amazing!" she exclaims and he pulls her into a hug when he reaches her.

She turns back around, still in Mike's arms, and looks at the water. It's crystal clear and there is a soft swell breaking on the shore. She can't wait to jump into it. She's not the best swimmer, but she's had lessons, so she should be ok, especially because there isn't really any surf. She down the towel that she was clutching, and pulls Mike's out of his hands.

"Let's go test the water," she enthuses and she shakes his hands up and down.

Mike laughs and presses a kiss to Rachel's lips, then takes off his shirt, while she strips down to her bikini.

"Remind me to remind you to wear a bikini more often," Mike smiles and Rachel blushes.

Then she takes his hand again and walks down to the waterfront. A wave crashes at her feet, and washes over them, and she laughs and looks up at Mike. He grins encouragingly, and takes a few more big steps into the ocean, turning back to beckon to her. Rachel looks around and sees a few more people dotted on the beach, some sunbaking, some already in the water, and then looks back at Mike, who has just surfaced from a dive right into the water. Rachel walks slowly into the water until it is lapping at her hip bones. The temperature is perfect, but she's afraid that if she goes out to where Michael is that she won't be able to stand, and then will get caught in a rip. Mike seems to sense her hesitancy, because he moves further in and smiles at her again. When she hesitates for even longer, Mike actually splashes her and she screams at him. He laughs and continues to splash her as she attempts to defend herself. When she is thoroughly soaked, she finally wades out to where Mike is, and he pulls her into his arms again.

"You're gorgeous," he smiles against her cheek.

* * *

They spend the next few days down at the beach as much as they can, and Rachel's already dark skin gets even darker. Mike just burns.

"Look, I can press a smiley face into your burn!" Mike's little brother, who (miraculously) has escaped burning, yells as he demonstrates.

He presses three fingers against Mike's arms and laughs when a white face appears amongst the red, and then slowly fades away.

"Oh, my poor baby," Rachel coos, as she spreads moisturiser on his sunburn to sooth it a little.

"Wish I could tan," Mike grumbles, "I'll just have to fake tan myself."

He instantly regrets saying it when a wide grin spills onto Rachel's face and she widens her eyes in a 'yes-we-should-definitely-do-that' way.

"Oh please no," Mike begs, but she just grins at him. He almost facepalms, but remembers his sunburn at the last minute, and so just sighs.

* * *

On their second last night, a storm blows in, so the families stay in at one house to have a game night. Rachel insists that 'Name The Musical' is a legit game, but no one agrees to play with her much to her dismay.

* * *

The next day is still slightly overcast and a large surf has swelled up. There are fierce sets of huge waves slamming into the sand and crashing impressively against the rocks. Rachel and Mike agree that it's not safe to go swimming in, what with their limited swimming abilities, so instead they decide to go for a walk around the rocks, staying away from the edge. They tell their parents where they are going and then set out with a picnic lunch that Rachel has packed. Mike carries the basket in one hand and keeps a firm hold of Rachel's hand in the other - he doesn't want her to slip on the rocks.

"Michael, I've had so much fun these past few days," Rachel grins, and swings their hands back and forth.

"Me too," Mike agrees, but then adds, "But 'Name The Musical' _isn't_ a game, Rach."

"It totally is," Rachel mumbles as Mike laughs softly.

"So what's in this picnic basket?" Mike asks to change the subject before she really starts sulking.

She perks up immediately and launches into a detailed explanation of their lunch, "Well, I thought that we could start of with some salad sandwiches, but don't worry I packed some chicken for you, and then I made some brownies last night, so those are in there too, plus I -"

But the rest of her words are drowned out by a loud sucking, then crashing noise. The next thing Mike knows, he's flat on his back with water rushing over him and Rachel's hand is forcefully being wrenched out of his. As the water from the wave washes back into the ocean, he scrambles to his feet and frantically looks around for Rachel. They had purposely stayed away from the rock edge just in case a wave swept them off, but the wave that had hit them had been a freakishly large one, and so Mike is worried that she has been sucked right into the water. Sure enough, as another, slightly smaller, wave hits the rocks, he sees her being tossed against them as well.

"Rachel!" he yells frantically, and scrambles closer to the water to get a better look at where she is.

He sees her tiny body when there is a lull in the waves, and it is floating, unmoving, near the rocks. He calls her name again, but she doesn't respond. He pulls off his shirt and shoes hurriedly and quickly glances around him. He spots two people walking on the beach about a hundred metres away from him and he yells, "Get help! There's a girl in the water!"

They see what he is trying to yell and he sees the woman take out her phone, and then he dives into the water without wasting any more time. Once he is in the water, he realises just how bad the undercurrents can get as he feels himself getting dragged back and forth through the water. He tried to look for Rachel, but a wave crashes over the top of him and he inhales a lot of water. While he is under, another current wrenches him one way, while a lower one tries to wrench him the other. The water is dark and he finds it difficult to tell which way is up. He starts frantically swimming, but he isn't reaching the surface. He starts to flail, and his hand suddenly breaches the surface beside him. He realises that he had been swimming sideways but the water was so dark that he couldn't tell. When he lifts his head, he sees that he is closer to the rocks now, and he spies Rachel floating a little way away from him. He powers over to her and drags her into his arms.

"Rachel!" he screams over the pounding of the surf, "Rachel!" but suddenly they are being slammed into the rocks again.

He feels the rocks gouging at his skin and he tries to kick back to the surface, but it's even more difficult now that he's holding Rachel. He eventually manages to get them to the top, and Rachel is suddenly coughing up water.

"Rachel!" Mike yells for the fourth time.

"Mike…hurts…" she chokes, her voice hoarse.

Her head flops back again and he sees that her face has been scratched up and there is a large, heavily bleeding cut on her forehead. He notices that the water around them is tinged with red, but the colour is being washed away just as quickly as it's coming, and there's nothing he can do to stop it, because they're still in the water.

Suddenly another wave hits them and she is once again torn from his grip. He slams against the rocks and it takes him even longer to surface. Once he does, he tries to take a breath, but another wave crashes on top of him and he swallows a lot of the salty water. He is thrown against the rocks again, and then is dragged across the jagged expanse. He can feel his skin being torn and bruised, but he can only think about finding Rachel. Coherent thought has abandned him, and so he just starts to swim frantically. He can't tell whether he's going up ord down, but apparently she was flailing around too, because his hand randomly bumps into hers and they both clutch at each other as another wave smashes them into the rocks. The waves are relentless as they toss Mike and Rachel around like ragdolls. Mike can feel that at least three of his ribs are broken and when they slam into the rocks again, he feels his left arm snap clean in half. Her hand suddenly goes limp, and when he surfaces, he sees that she has hit her head again and is now unconscious. By this point, he has swallowed a lot of water and is finding is difficult to breathe. His kicks become more lethargic and his struggles start to cease. He is dimly aware of her hand still in his, so he drags her to him as another current takes hold of him. He can tell that they are going down because the current is getting slightly weaker, but he can't even find the strength to _think_ about swimming to the surface. The currents are still tugging at them, but he won't let go of her. As his lungs start to scream from lack of oxygen, and he really feels every cut and gouge on his body, somewhere in the deep recesses of his mind, it occurs to him that they are deep enough now that the currents are barely there.

He never lets go of her, even as they hit the ocean floor, and the last thing to go through his sluggish mind before he lets the last air bubble escape his mouth is that he couldn't save her.


	14. Rachel1

**CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Hate On Me**

**Characters: Rachel, Tina, Glee Club**

**Genre: Hurt/Comfort/General**

**Summary: It's finally happened - she's been discovered!**

Rachel had been telling the Glee Club how she was perfectly willing to sing a solo, or two (or three) at Regionals, because, "- while we have progressed to Regionals, it was a tie, and I remain confident in my belief that had_ I_ been afforded a solo, then New Directions and New Directions _alone_ would be competing."

She had just started in on ideas for her ballad when suddenly Mercedes piped up with, "Ex_cuse_ me? I will not sit here and listen to you tell us how 'badly' we went at Sectionals! You need to get _over_ yourself!"

Rachel simply looked over at Mercedes and insisted that, "You have misinterpreted what I have been saying, Mercedes. I never said that we did badly, I just said that we would have done _better_ if I had had a chance to showcase my considerable talent."

"Yeah? Well we are _always_ showcasing your 'talent'!" Mercedes yelled, using air quotes for the word talent.

"_Actually_ Mercedes, I have not had a solo for quite some time. And I think you'll find that the last time I was offered a solo, I graciously allowed yourself and Tina to have it," Rachel said firmly, a small frown appearing on her face.

"You were just upset about losing Finn, it had nothing to do with you being a good person," Quinn piped up.

This shook Rachel a little, and her mouth dropped open slightly, but she quickly found her voice, "Was I not allowed to be upset? I think I'm entitled to that."

"I don't. What, 'Oh poor me, my boyfriend slept with someone else when we _weren't together_'?" Quinn told her in a hard voice.

"And _lied_ about it when we _were_ together!" Rachel shot back, starting to lose her cool by that point.

The rest of the club had not moved and were looking back and forth between Rachel, Mercedes and Quinn, the latter two throwing glares Rachel's way.

"Ok guys, just cool it down," Mr Schue finally cut in, "Rachel, why don't you sit down and we can get on with the lesson?"

"But Mr Schue, this is highly unfair!" Rachel complained, spinning on her heel to face the curly-haired teacher.

"Rachel, you can't argue that you don't get many solos," Mr Schue insisted.

"Uh, yes I _can_! I haven't had a solo in over three weeks! And with you changing our songs about three times a week, that works out to be a _lot_ of solos!" Rachel yelled at him, but then clamped her hand over her mouth. She had disagreed with Mr Schue before, but she had never yelled at him. She looked back at the rest of the Club, most of whom were smirking or looking scandalised (*cough*Mercedes*cough*), "I…I'm sorry."

She quickly ran out of the room before Mr Schue could respond, because she could see that he was not very happy about how she had spoken to him either. She ran right into the girls bathroom closest to the choir room and straight up to a sink. She stared at her reflection in the mirror, wondering what had gotten into her. She was _never_ rude to adults. But she just…she'd been getting more and more annoyed at everyone in Glee treating her like she was less than them. It was like everyone needed someone to pick on. The cheerleaders and jocks picked on everyone, the rest of the student population could pick on Glee, and Glee picked on Rachel. She could do nothing right, and even things that weren't her fault were her fault. Of _course_ Finn was the victim when he had also cheated on a partner, then lied about feelings for her, then treated her like crap, then lied again. Of _course_ she stole everyone else's solos even though she hadn't had a solo for ages. Of _course_ she's not allowed to stand up for herself. He wishes that she could just be discovered already so that she could be on Broadway where she truly belonged.

Her thoughts are interrupted when she hears the door open and she turns to see Tina looking at sheepishly, "Hey…um…you left your stuff," she murmured and held up Rachel's bag.

Rachel offered a small smile and thanked the girl, taking her bag off her.

"So, um…I'm sorry that I didn't say anything back there…but you're right, you _did_ let me have a solo, and…well, I never thanked you. So thankyou," Tina suddenly told her.

"Uh…I…you're welcome," Rachel told her honestly, "Um, what makes you say that?"

Tina rubbed the back of her neck somewhat awkwardly and said, "Because no one ever thanks you. I mean, yeah, ok, you have a high opinion of yourself, but you _are_ talented. _Really_ talented. And sometimes it seems like people don't appreciate that. Like…no one ever thanked you at that first Sectionals, and no one thanks you for doing the things in Glee that no one else wants to do…like paperwork and stuff. And even though some people don't appreciate it, you give people pointers, and…stuff. I've definitely gotten better since I started actually following your advice," she murmured, seeming a bit embarrassed.

Rachel didn't know what to say so she just mumbled, "That's because I've had…_years_ of proper training."

Tina just laughed and said, "See you round Rachel."

As the Asian girl left the room, Rachel wondered why she hadn't thanked _Tina_ for saying thankyou. It did feel nice to have someone on her side.

* * *

The next day Rachel marched straight up to Tina with a plate of her 'I'm sorry' cookies, except instead of her usual message, they had the letters T-H-A-N-K-Y-O-U emblazoned on them. She had never made 'thankyou' cookies before because she had never had someone to thank. People were usually _against_ her, not with her. Her personality had that effect, for some reason.

"Hi Rachel," Tina smiled, her arm around Mike's waist.

"Hello Tina, Michael," Rachel grinned back, addressing the quiet boy as well, "Tina, I didn't get the chance to thank you for what you said yesterday, so I baked you some cookies!" she said brightly, pushing the plate into Tina's hands, "I appreciate your sentiments very much, and hope that this is the start of a beautiful friendship!"

"Hey, Rachel, I just wanted to say that I'm really sorry, too, that I didn't say anything about what they were saying to you," Mike mumbled.

"Oh, why thankyou Michael, that's quite all right," Rachel beamed. Two whole friends in two days. She was doing well.

Tina thanked her for the cookies, and Rachel skipped off down the hall, confident that she finally secured a lasting friendship at McKinley high. It was when she rounded the corner at the end of the hall that the ice cold slushie hit her. Except that the slushie throwers seemed to be getting smarter because it had been thrown at the back of her head, meaning that not only would it be more difficult to reach, but it would soak into her hair more thoroughly. She heard the laughter around her before she saw it, and when she opened her eyes, she rushed to the nearest bathroom before more people could gather. When she eventually managed to wash it completely out, she had missed her entire free period, which meant that she couldn't complete her Spanish assignment. She had wanted to check out a book from the library in order to do it, and as it was only an over-night assignment, her free period was the only opportunity to do so. So she ran to Spanish class and tried to finish what she had started last night before Mr Schue could enter the classroom.

Unfortunately for her, this was one of the rare days that Mr Schue was on time. She was still scrawling whatever she could remember from the internet onto the paper when Mr Schue arrived at her desk.

"Rachel no ha terminado?" (Not finished Rachel?) Mr Schue asked.

"Uh, no señor, yo iba a día de hoy, pero…t-tuve que lavar el…um…granizado de mi pelo," (No sir, I was going to today, but I had to wash the slushie out of my hair.) Rachel replied as quickly as she could, fumbling over a few words.

"Rachel, no puedo dejar fuera. Usted pudo haber hecho la noche anterior," (Rachel, I can't let you off. You could have done it last night.) Mr Schue shook his head, but collected her assignment anyway, "Esto es muy decepcionante Rachel." (This is very disappointing Rachel.)

Rachel hung her head, feeling that Mr Schue was being a bit unfair. She _always_ handed in her work on time, and he knew how much bullying she put up with. She sighed and then did her work quietly until the bell rang signalling the end of the lesson. She packed up her things and scurried to her next class before she could get slushied again - not that it was likely to happen twice in one day, but you never knew.

* * *

When the day finally ended, she drove herself home and threw herself onto her bed and pulled out her laptop to turn it on. Just as it was logging her on, she heard the phone ring. Looking up from the screen, she realised that her fathers weren't home so she ran down the stairs to the kitchen to answer is.

"Hello, Berry residence," she answered politely.

"Hello, yes, may I please speak to Rachel Berry?" a female voice asked.

"Speaking," she replied and wondered who it was.

"Ah, hello Rachel. My name is Georgette Nichols and I represent the Belize Casting Agency," Rachel's heart nearly stopped, exploded and imploded at the same time, but Georgette was still talking, "We've been searching for new talent for the past few months and came across your myspace videos. You are a spectacular singer, and we were wondering if you would accept an offer to come in and audition for us for a part in a production."

Rachel was silent for a moment, her breathing speeding up exponentially, but then she managed to say, "Of-of _course_! What's the part?"

"It's the role of Little Red Riding Hood in _Into The Woods_," Georgette told her, and then added, "It's a Broadway production."

Rachel's heart actually _did_ skip a beat or two at this, "Br-Broadway? It's_ on_ Broadway?"

"Yes, and I can tell that you're excited?" the woman asked with a smile in her voice.

"Unbelievably! I can't believe this is actually happening, thankyou! Thankyou so much!" Rachel exclaimed.

"That is absolutely ok. The first video we watched of you was actually your rendition of 'I Know Things Now', so that gave us a good idea of how you will handle the songs."

Rachel took down the time and place of the audition, thanked Georgette again and hung up in a daze. Almost immediately after she hung up, she heard her daddy's voice from behind her, "What are you so excited about Pumpkin?"

"Could you go and sit in the lounge room with dad, I have something to tell you both," Rachel grinned like a maniac.

She followed them in as they both took a seat and she faced them, grinning from ear to ear.

"As you both know, I have been posting videos of myself singing on Myspace for the better part of two years," she started, "Just then I received a phone call from a woman named Georgette Nichols who is from the Belize Casting Agency, and she presented me with the opportunity to audition for the role of Little Red Riding Hood in aproduction of _Into The Woods_, on Broadway! _Broadway_!"

"Sweetie! Rachel! That's amazing!" her dad exclaimed as he jumped up and embraced her in a hug, her daddy quickly following suit.

After much celebrating, Rachel's dad finally asked, "When and where and how much?"

"It's two weeks from this Saturday in New York and I'm not sure how much yet. But I have a savings account for just occasions such as this," she told them, still giddy with joy.

"Don't be ridiculous, sweetheart, this is your future. Hiram and I will pay for this audition," her dad told her with a smile almost as big as hers.

* * *

After much planning and preparing, the day before Rachel was due to fly to New York rolled around much faster than she thought it would. She had planned to go proudly into school the day after she heard and tell anyone who would care to listen, or at least who would stand still long enough, that she was auditioning for Broadway…but she had been struck by a sudden and uncharacteristic bout of uncertainty. What if she failed? What if, God forbid, they said that her singing wasn't good enough? Or her acting? So she had stayed quiet and not told anyone.

That Thursday, however, she was starting to get really nervous, and was finding it difficult to concentrate at anything she was doing. Someone noticed.

"Hey Rachel," Tina smiled at the small brunette.

"What? Oh, hello Tina, I didn't see you there," Rachel replied.

"Are you ok? You look distracted. Like, _really_ distracted," she said.

Rachel looked at her contemplatively for a moment, and then grabbed her hand, dragging her down the corridor. Before Tina could ask where they were going, she found herself being pushed into the auditorium door and dragged down into one of the seats.

"Tina…I have something to tell you," Rachel admitted and took a deep breath. Tina looked nervous, as if Rachel was going to tell her something horrible, but then Rachel said, "I'm going to New York tomorrow."

Tina blinked for a moment, waiting for Rachel to continue, but apparently she was done, "Oh…um…awesome?"

"No, you don't understand!" Rachel exclaimed as she tugged at Tina's hand, "I'm going because…I've been asked to audition for a part. On Broadway."

Tina felt like she been slapped across the face, "Oh wow! Congratulations! I can't believe it! That's amazing!"

"Yeah but it's not!" Rachel suddenly panicked, and Tina looked at her like she'd just grown a second head. Had Rachel Berry just said that a Broadway audition was _not_ amazing?

"I don't understand," Tina finally managed.

"Well, it's like…if you had spent your whole life wanting something and telling _everyone _that you were going to get it and you were going to be _amazing_ at it, and then suddenly it was being presented to you…it's…it's overwhelming. I mean, what if I _fail_? What if I suck and they tell me to leave? Or worse, what if they tell all their Broadway friends that I'm not fit to be on Broadway and I never get another audition ever again?" Rachel rambled, starting to hyper-ventilate.

"Woah, Rachel, calm down!" Tina managed to get in over Rachel's sobs. She was shocked at the amount of information that she had just been given. She knew that Rachel was right to be nervous, but also that she was going to be awesome, "Ok. Look. We're both 17 years old in a cowtown in the middle of Ohio. We've both lived here all our lives. We both have dreams of being performers. But of all the differences between us, do you know what the biggest one is?" here Rachel shook her head, tears still falling down her cheeks, "You have an audition to a Broadway show. Now even if the casting agents are stupid enough to cast someone else, sure it'll suck for a bit, but you're young, Rach, you're only seventeen! There will be so many more opportunities for you! You are an amazing performer, and I know you're going to be amazing. Even if no one else in this school appreciates who you are, I do, and I will support you all the way."

Rachel threw her arms around Tina and mumbled, "Thankyou so much," into her shoulder. She had never realised what a good person Tina was. But now here she was comforting Rachel, when she was being _majorly_ over-dramatic, and not telling her how annoying she was.

It felt nice to have a friend.

* * *

Tina was waiting by Rachel's locker the following Monday, awaiting the girl's arrival. She hadn't been able to get a hold of Rachel at all over the weekend, and she was worried that that meant that Rachel was depressed over not having gotten the part.

"Tina?" she heard a small voice from behind her, and turned to see Rachel looking up at her, an undecipherable look on her face.

"Rachel! How did you go?" Tina asked excitedly.

Rachel looked around nervously and then leaned in to whisper, "Can I talk to you in the auditorium again?"

Tina's heart sunk as she took in the small girl walking slightly in front of her. There was no way that she would be this quiet if she had gotten the part. They sat down in the same seats that they had been in the previous Thursday and Rachel looked up at Tina.

"There were nineteen other girls at my audition, and it was the last one. There had already been thirteen other groups already. Some of the other girls, oh you should have _seen_ them! They were amazing. There was this one girl, Ellie. If she's not a star by the time she's twenty, then there's something wrong with the world. But anyway, the audition was on the Saturday morning. It went really well and they picked me and Ellie to go through to the final auditions on Sunday. I thought that there would be more rounds, but apparently they only needed the two. They made their decision pretty quickly as well. It was awful. They called us in individually to tell us whether or not we had gotten the part."

She paused here and Tina thought that maybe Rachel was going to start crying , so she said, "So what happened?"

Suddenly Rachel's sad expression dropped right off her face and she looked so excited that she was fit to bursting, "I got the part! Tina, I _got _the _part_! I'm a Broadway actress!"

"Oh my God! Oh my _God_ Rachel! Congratulations!" Tina exclaimed as she pulled the tiny girl in for a hug.

Rachel laughed and hugged the Asian girl back, tears of joy starting to leak down her face.

"But don't tell anyone," Rachel grinned, "I want to tell them in Glee."

"I won't," Tina agreed with a smile, "Wow, I can't believe you're going to Broadway."

They continued to talk for a bit about when Rachel would be leaving, but then the bell signalling homeroom sounded and they went their separate ways. Rachel had idea how she was able to keep it to herself all day, but finally the end of the day was rolling around, Glee with it, and she couldn't keep the smile off her face.

"What the hell are you so smiley about?" Santana asked as she pushed past Rachel on her way into Glee, but Rachel just continued to beam at her, "Right, whatever, just make sure to stay the hell away from me."

As the rest of Glee filtered in and sat down, along with Mr Schue, Rachel stood up before he could address the group, "I have an important announcement to make -"

She was immediately cut off by a groan from Santana, "God, can you just shut up for one second? We've all had enough of you and your stupid I'm-the-greatest attitude, so just drop it before I drop you."

Rachel was about to ignore her and launch into her final goodbye, but then Mercedes spoke up too, "Santana's right, Little Miss Diva. Not every announcement you make is as important as you think it is, can you just let Mr Schue do his job and butt the hell out."

"Mercedes, I -"

"Give it a _rest_ Manhands! Santana was _right_ when she said that we're all just pretending to like you, so why don't you toddle on out of this room and then we can replace you and be done with it," Quinn half-yelled at Rachel.

Tina opened her mouth to tell all of them to shut up, but Rachel beat her to it. She had a fire in her eyes that Tina had never seen before, and she knew immediately that it meant that she was angry, "Fine! I can see that I'm neither wanted nor appreciated here, so I guess you'll all be happy that I'm leaving then!"

"Please! Your storm outs are _not_ effective anymore. If you set foot outside that door, then we won't let you come back even when you beg," Santana mocked.

"I can assure you that I will _not_ be coming back. I won't be coming back to this school at all! I'll have you all know that I've been awarded the part of Little Red Riding Hood in a production of _Into The Woods_. On Broadway. I leave for New York in a week, and I will certainly _not_ miss any of you, Tina and Mike aside. You have all treated me awfully and told me that I am not as talented as I think, but I guess the joke is on all of you, because I have succeeded and you have all failed. So goodbye, and _don't_ try to contact me when I'm famous," Rachel gave a big harrumph, stared with triumph at the shocked faces of her peers, and Mr Schue, and then grabbed her bag, turned on her heel and left.

"She's probably lying," Santana sneered.

"_Actually_, she's not," Tina ground out stonily as she got up from her seat and pulled Mike with her out the door.

They quickly found Rachel sobbing in the auditorium.

"Hey Rach," Tina mumbled as she down near Rachel, and Mike sat down on her other side.

"Hey guys," Rachel murmured in a watery voice as she tried to swipe her tears away, "Sorry…it's just…I thought they'd at least listen to me when I told them that I was leaving. I mean, it's what they want, right? But they don't even care."

"Oh, believe me, they care," Mike said and he wrapped an arm around Rachel as Tina wrapped an arm around her other side, "You should have seen their faces when you left. They're shit scared for Regionals now, and most of them will miss you. I mean not Quinn, Santana and Mercedes, but that's no loss."

Rachel just stared at him.

"Uh…what?" he asked, unsure.

"I just…I don't think I've ever heard you talk so much at once," she giggled, "Or ever."

"Hey that's not fair," Mike pouted, "You've heard me sing."

"Anyway," Tina cut in, "You're amazing Rach, just like I said, and you're going to take Broadway by storm. I can't wait to see you up there."

* * *

6 months later, Kurt, Tina and Mike, all of whom Rachel had remained close with, received a letter in each of their mail boxes.

_I've missed you so much, so I think a catch up is in order. It's a good thing Skype exists or I'd have forgotten what you look like._

_Rachel xoxoxoxox_

The same day, the rest of the Glee kids, plus Mr Schue received identical letters in their mail boxes.

_I thought you might want to see what real talent looks like since you haven't seen it for a whole 6 months._

_Rachel xx_

Attached to each letter was a ticket to a performance of her show.

**A/N I had continued this further but I realised that that was as far as it had to go. I don't know whether or not I'm happy with this… Also I don't know Spanish, so the Spanish that they use is from Google Traslate, so it might be a little broken.**

**Let me know by clicking that pretty blue writing (or purple…I don't know, I'm colour-blind).**


	15. Cherry3

**CHAPTER FIFTEEN: Marry You**

**Characters: Cherry, Matt**

**Genre: Romance/Humor**

**Summary: She loved to be challenged, so what better way to propose to her than through a scavenger hunt?**

I had been playing the title character in a Broadway revival of _Gypsy_ for just over a year, and we had just performed our last show. My boyfriend of five years was sitting in the audience in the very front row, like he did at all my opening and closing shows. Michael Chang, my boyfriend, also worked in the theatre as a dance choreographer and tutor. We had bought an apartment in New York City, right across from Central Park about half a year ago, and we went out for dinner twice a week. Every other night, we stayed in and took turns cooking or went out with friends.

Overall I was very happy with the way my life was turning out.

* * *

It was a Saturday morning when I was sitting home alone, since Michael had gone out with some mates, that I got a phone call from an unknown number.

"Hello?"

"Look in the cutlery draw," the voice said, and then the line went dead.

Feeling very confused, I walked slowly into the kitchen and moved towards the draw almost cautiously. I opened the draw and inside was a little red envelope containing a little red note.

_If you go down to the park today_

_You're in for a big surprise_

_If you go down to the park today_

_You're sure to find something nice_

_p.s You'll need this for later:_

A little heart followed this mysterious note along with a key taped onto the bottom, and there was a picture of the part of Central ark that was closest to the outside of our apartment. There was another picture inside, but this one was slightly more confusing. It had a weird shaped rock in the centre which looked as though it had been moved from a similar-shaped crater in the ground. Within the crater was another red envelope. I assumed that I had to find this rock and, in doing so, the next clue. I hurriedly threw on a nicer looking outfit and ran out the door with a big smile on my face. I had a funny feeling that this little treasure hunt involved a proposal, but I didn't want to jinx it, so I tried not to think too hard about it.

Once I arrived at the park, I saw a red arrow pointing to a bushy area. I figured that he had decided to help by narrowing my search down a bit. I spent about ten minutes turning over rocks that looks vaguely like the one in the picture, but it was very difficult. The picture was close enough to the rock that it didn't give away anything about the surrounding shrubbery. Eventually, though, I managed to locate the rock and the next clue.

_You'll need to travel_

_But you can't use your car_

_Not to worry_

_You don't have to go far._

_If you look hard_

_You'll find something that's teal_

_It's metal and shiny_

_And has two big wheels_

I figured that he was referring to the teal coloured bike that he had given to me for my last birthday, and I wondered if he had gotten that for me just so that he could rhyme it with the word 'wheels'. It also made me giggle a bit because if that was the case, then that meant that he had been planning this hunt for over four months.

I walked around the surrounding area hoping to find my bike and eventually found it chained to a tree near where I had just been. I realised that this was what the key was for. I unlocked it and rummaged in the wire basket which had been filled with little paper hearts. I pulled out my third clue and read it quickly.

_So far you're doing quite well_

_Let's see how far you can go_

_Your next clue can be found_

_In place that you're sure to know_

_You spend a lot of time there_

_Because you have always loved to read_

_But now you need to go there_

_For a very specific deed_

I stood for a moment as I tried to decipher the clue, and I realised almost immediately that he was referring to the library, which would be about a ten minute bike ride. I eagerly mounted the bike and started to ride. As the little paper hearts started to fly out of the basket due to my speed, I realised that he had so kindly made them out of the biodegradable paper that I had been badgering him about, and so I didn't worry too much that they now littered the ground.

I arrived at the library in a little over ten minutes and quickly locked my bike up and then ran inside. I smiled at Lucy, my favourite librarian as I ran, and she beckoned me over. She silently handed me another clue and smiled hugely at me. I beamed at her and opened the clue as quickly as I could.

_This treasure hunt has been easy so far_

_But now you'll be put to the test_

_You need to find something and it's hidden quite well_

_This is the turning point of your quest_

_There is a book in this place which you must locate_

_And you'll be rewarded with a clue_

_Choose the wrong one and you'll be set back_

_The outcome resides within you_

_Decipher the following and choose your book_

_Take this book to Lucy and she will tell you if you have succeeded:_

_The book has always been my favourite_

_It has a lot of my best loved things_

_There's my favourite place and my (second) favourite feel_

_And my favourite set of Rings_

Reading the riddle three times over, I deduced (though it wasn't hard) that he was talking about an Atlas, since we both loved reading them. He always told me that he had massive plans to travel the world, as did I, and so we had bought about seven different atlases and read through each and every one. But there was a whole _section_ on Atlases in this library, so I hurried over and started looking through them. I narrowed it down to the three books that he looked at the most often when we came here. None of them were allowed to be borrowed, since they were so special, and that it why I knew that it would be one of these, since if his favourite Atlas could be bought or borrowed, it would have a permanent fixture in our house. I ruled out the oldest one, since the pages were just paper, and I knew that he loved the feel of the pages, so that was the feel part of the riddle. It was just the 'Rings' that I had to figure out. I looked closely at the two books and tried to figure it out. I tried to think back on anything that he could have said that would give it away. The word was capitalised, but I couldn't think of any place that he had mentioned with the word 'Rings' in the title. But then suddenly I had a brainwave. He had always wanted to go the Spiralling Waterfalls that were located somewhere in Australia, but that he had only ever read of them in one place; the Jaones Atlas. I quickly seized this book and practically ran to Lucy. I pushed the book into her hands and she smiled.

"That was faster than he thought. He told me to give you about half an hour and then to go and see how you were doing," she smiled and handed me another red envelope.

"Well he should give me more credit next time," I grinned widely. I looked at the clock and realised that I had only been there for ten minutes, tops. I ripped the envelope open and pulled out the clue.

_You're almost done with this little trip_

_You've only got one more stop_

_You need to go to the other side of the park_

_The part right next to _our_ shop_

_There you will find a little puzzle_

_One that you have to complete_

_After that, I do promise you_

_That we both we will be able to meet_

I thanked Lucy and then ran out to unchain my bike. Jumping on, I rode as fast as I could towards the part of the park that he was referring to in the note. The bit about 'our shop' was a reference to a little tea shop that we spent almost an hour in every other day. We often ate brunch there and the little old man that ran the shop always kept our little table for us. I was almost certain that I would be met with a proposal when I finally got to Michael, and I knew that my answer would be yes if that was the case, and this spurred me to ride even faster. I arrived at the park another five minutes later. At the entrance to the park, I saw Matthew, his long-time best friend, standing there with a huge smile on his face.

He gave me a hug as I walked up and offered an explanation, "I'm here to provide you with your puzzle."

I laughed and looked down at it. It seemed to be some sort of maths puzzle. I turned to Matt, "Did he make this up?"

Matt scratched his head briefly and then laughed, "Don't tell him I told you this, but he Googled it."

"I won't tell him, your secret is safe with me," I laughed.

I looked back at the board and asked Matt if he had any paper with him, by any chance. It seemed that he had anticipated this, and brought out a notepad and a pen. I wrote all of the numbers down and looked at them critically for a moment.

"Don't worry if you don't get it straight away. I've been standing here for half an hour trying to figure it out and I've had no luck," he told me.

But I just smirked, "Actually I've just figured it out."

For a moment he was silent. Then he laughed, "Hey shut up, isn't your IQ like 200?"

"Oh ha ha Matthew," I rolled my eyes.

I laughed as I hit him over the head with the notepad and told him to give me my clue. He just handed me a picture. It was a big read box with a rope extending out of the top and straight out of the picture. On the back it said:

_Find me!_

I didn't know what was under the box, but I had my suspicions, so I immediately started my hunt around the park. Central Park had never seemed so big, and so it took me about fifteen minutes of searching, but eventually I happened upon a big red box with a rope that had been tossed around a thick looking branch like a makeshift pulley, and a sign that said _PULL ME_. I pulled on the rope, thereby lifting the box, and underneath the box was Michael, down on one knee, holding out a ring box. I squealed in a _very_ girly way and hurried to hook the rope around the peg to hold up the box.

"Marry me?" was all he said when I took a step closer to him.

"Of _course _I'll marry you!" I yelled and threw myself into his arms.

He pulled me into a kiss and slid the ring onto my finger.

"I love you. I love you so much. I loved today and all the effort you put in. I love that you know me so well and I love that you made me work for this," I told him as he held me close to him.

"Come on, let's go relieve Matt of his anxious waiting," I smiled and we walked towards the entrance, hand in hand.

Matt kissed my cheek and clapped Michael on the back when we walked over to him, me with a ring on my finger.

"Your woman is insane," he told Michael seriously, "It took her all of one minute to solve your 'impossible maths trick'."

"Yeah well Lucy told me that she figured out my Atlas riddle in about ten minutes, so Rach, please forgive me for underestimating your immense intelligence," he laughed and then we were all laughing like little school-kids.

"When did you talk to Lucy?" I asked him after the laughter had died down.

"She called me to tell me you were on your way," he told me, "You don't think I've been under that box _all_ day, do you?"

"Of course not," I giggled.

Matt laughed, and earned himself a shoulder-punch from Michael, "Well, I should head off so that you two kids can have the rest of the afternoon to yourselves."

He got onto his motorbike and drove off after congratulating us once again. I leaned into Michael and we started on our way back home.

"Do you want me to wheel that?" Michael suddenly asked.

"After you were such a sweetie and planned this? No way. But the sooner we get home, the sooner we can _celebrate_ getting engaged," I whispered directly into his ear and suddenly he was grabbing my bike and sprinting in the direction of our apartment.

**A/N Aww, cute Cherry-ness. This makes me feel much better after my tragic tragedy of a story.**

**Let me know what you think of it :D**


	16. Bartie2

**CHAPTER SIXTEEN: Telephone**

**Characters: Bartie or Brittie (whichever ship name you prefer), Glee Club**

**Genre: Romance/Humor**

**Summary: Artie is shocked to discover that, while Brittany knows how to call, she doesn't know how to text from her phone. Artie finally teaches her how…but there is a downside - now that she knows…she won't stop.**

Artie feels his phone vibrating in his shirt pocket and realises that he is being called. He would answer, but he is currently sitting in the middle of his Math class, so he lets it go to voicemail…the same goes for all seven subsequent calls. When class finally ends, he pulls his phone out to see that every call was from Brittany. This confuses and scares him a little. What if something happened to her? What if she needed help, but he didn't answer? But then suddenly she is bouncing up to him and he sighs and holds up his phone.

"Brittany, how come you called me so many times?" he asks her as she starts to wheel him down the corridor.

"I just wanted to know how you were," she tells him in her bubbly voice.

"Oh…well why didn't you just text me?" Artie wonders.

"I don't know how to text. Is that the one where you send naked pictures of yourself to people? Cos if it is, I'll totally learn so that I can send them to you," she smiles brightly.

"Uh, that's a sext. It's like a text, but…dirty," Artie mumbles, but then adds, "So…wait…you can't text?"

"There are, like…_so_ many buttons," Brittany murmurs as she comes to a stop next to her locker and pulls out her phone. She hands it to Artie and says, "Here, you can teach me. I always get things when you explain them."

So that's not entirely true, but she does seem to understand things a _little_ better when he explains them. Maybe it's because he doesn't treat her like an idiot, like most of the population of McKinley High do…even the teachers. Either way, he looks at her phone and smiles when he sees that it has a shortcut button to create messages and that her phone had a qwerty keypad.

When they go to lunch, she sits down next to Artie and says, "Ok, teach me how to sext."

"Um, ok well I'll teach you how to _text_ and we can go from there," he smiles at her and she smiles adoringly back. She turns her attention to the phone and suddenly gets very serious, "Ok, see this little picture of the envelope?" she nods, "That button will get you into the 'create a message' screen, ok?" she nods again and he demonstrates, then gives the phone to her to try it out, "So all you have to remember is the envelope to start off with, right? And then you just type your message using the lettered buttons. It's just like a computer keyboard on your phone."

"Just like that? Isn't there anything else? Santana always made it seem so hard," Brittany murmurs as she concentrates on memorising how to text, "What do I do when it's written?"

"Ok, so once it's written, you click into the options, like this," he clicks the middle button, "and then contacts, with the same button," he clicks it again, "and then you can scroll down until you get to the name of the person that you want to send it to," he scrolls down to his name, "and then you click the middle button again, and then once more and it's sent!"

Sure enough, his phone vibrates, and he opens the message to show Brittany, who has a look of slight confusion on her face, "Ok, give me a turn."

He hands her the phone and lets her attempt to recreate the texting process, only helping when she asks him to. By the end of lunch she seems to have gotten the hang of texting, and she is absolutely beaming at Artie.

"Artie, you're the best! No one has ever tried to teach me that before, they all think I'm too dumb. Except Santana," she tells him.

"Brittany, you're not dumb, you're wonderful, and they are all just missing out on the wonderful person that is you," Artie smiles at her and takes her hand in his, pressing a light kiss to it.

Suddenly the bell rings and Brittany's face falls a little, "Now I don't get to see you for ages," she moans, but then a smile suddenly lights up her face, "But I can _text_ you!"

Artie wheels beside her to her class, then waves and wheels off to his. He hasn't been in there for more than a minute when his phone buzzes once.

_hey artie im texting! xx_

He smiles at her enthusiasm and texts back, _You sure are! You're amazing xx_

He expects that to be it, but then, not three seconds after he sends that text, his phone is buzzing again.

_yay! exciting!_

He doesn't reply and turns to the front where the teacher has begun talking about how Shakespeare shaped the literary world of today and what a visionary he was. Artie flips open his notebook to start taking notes when his phone buzzes again.

_:D_

He sends back, _Pay attention in class Duckie! I love you xx_

He thinks that that is the end of it, but of course his phone is soon vibrating again, _i will, i promise and i luv u 2 xoxox_

Unfortunately, throughout the entire class, his phone vibrates so much that he ends up turning it to silent. He replies to some texts, but some of them are just smiley faces or random 'facts'. One time she even sends 'my name is brittany' and he thinks that maybe it's because she's just learnt to text, so she's doing it as often as possible, but he remains confident that the novelty will wear off soon enough.

He's wrong though.

Even while he's sitting _right next to her _in Glee, she keeps texting him. Mr Schue asks her to put the phone away, but she just becomes more subtle about it, texting when Mr Schue has his back turned. When he goes home for the day, he expects her to text him a few times then, but it's like that's all she's doing. By seven o'clock that night his once empty inbox now has over 700 messages in it. Even if he wants to reply to all of them, he can't because she's sending them so fast. He thinks that he made a mistake in not showing her how to text other people, but then he realises that she might end up texting Santana this much, and he doesn't want an annoyed Santana on his case.

He goes to sleep at about eleven thirty and there are 843 messages in his inbox. He wakes up the next morning and his inbox is completely full - it can hold 1000 messages. He mass deletes most of them, and doesn't even bother reading most of the ones that she sent while he was asleep, because they still say things like 'is it called a text cos it was invented in Textas?' (he smiles when he sees that she has put the extra 't' in Texas) or 'a pencil is just a dum version of a pen'. He wonders if she even got any sleep.

But when he sees her at school that morning, she is just as bright-eyed and chipper as usual.

"Brittany, maybe you shouldn't text so much, huh?" Artie smiles, "You'll waste your credit."

"What does credit do? Is that like on an assignment when you get…extra credit for, like, sleeping with teacher?" she asks, still smiling.

"Uh, ew, um, no, it's what lets you text people. You need to pay for it. Every text costs you money, so you have to buy credit so that you can keep texting," he explains patiently and then suddenly an understanding grin spills onto Brittany's face.

"I get it. But…why can I text you so much then?" she asks.

"Well…maybe we're on the same network. I know sometimes they do deals like that where you can text sometimes on the same network for free," Artie tells her and then mentally facepalms.

"Oh, great! So I can keep texting you then," she exclaims and then wheels Artie to his homeroom when they hear the bell ring.

During homeroom he receives three texts. They all say the same thing: _FREE TEXT._ He doesn't reply to them because he has a feeling that he'll be receiving a lot of them throughout the day. When he leaves homeroom, he sees Brittany leaning against the wall outside. She looks up at him and shakes her phone in front of her, then gestures to his.

"Did you get my text?" she asks him rather bluntly.

"I…uh…yeah, but I -"

"Well you didn't text me back," Brittany informs him firmly.

"I, well, no, because you've been texting me a _lot_ lately, and I don't _mind_, but I can't reply to _all_ of them," he tells her, and her face falls a little.

"You don't like the texts?" she asks him, a small frown gracing her features.

"No, I _love _the texts, but…well I like to keep texts for special occasions. If we text all the time, then it won't be as special. But if we only do it sometimes, then it feels really nice to get a text out of the blue," Artie smiles up at her as he takes her hand.

She thinks hard for a moment and then leans down to kiss his cheek, "You're right. I'll only text when it's really important now."

He smiles and pulls her down onto his lap to give her a ride to her first class.

She doesn't text him until halfway through the day when he gets an, _i love you xox_, and he smiles to himself. He knows now that she's only going to text him _sometimes_, when it's important.

That night he gets a text that says, _i think my scarf is actually a snake_.

Yep, only when it's important.

**A/N Bartie is the best canon pairing at the moment! (Besides Puckleberry, but I guess I mean confirmed canon).**


	17. Glee Club1

**CHAPTER 17: 4 Minutes**

**Characters: Glee Club, Mr Schue**

**Genre: Varied - mostly angst/hurt/comfort/tragedy**

**A/N So I put these in the order of ages (i.e. Brittany was the youngest when her 4 minutes occurred, so she is first, and so on). They are all different universes, I guess, so what happened to Rachel in hers in different to the Rachel she became in Mike's one. **

**Summary: 4 minutes is enough to turn a person's world upside down…then side to side and maybe even enough to give it a punch right in the face.**

Brittany: She had been quite a bright child, her parents had always encouraged her and helped her to grow. She was developing at a healthy pace, and was even excelling at spelling and mathematics in her kindy class.

One summer morning, on a particularly hot day, Brittany decided that she wanted to go for a swim in her pool. She got her swimming costume on and headed outside. She couldn't see her parents anywhere - she supposed they were inside in the air-conditioning - so she went to the pool by herself. She had worked out how to unlock the gate with the broom, so she did just that and then walked to the poolside. Her floaties were nowhere in sight so she figured that she would just sit on the top step; she was smart enough to know that it was dangerous to swim without her water-wings and float-pack.

However, as she went to lower herself onto the first step, she slipped and hit her head on the side of the pool. She was instantly knocked unconscious. Unfortunately she also slipped right into the water.

It took at least 4 minutes for her mother to wander out of the house, spot her lying face down in the pool, scream, then drag her out. Her father, who knew CPR, was able to keep her alive until the ambulance got there. They revived her fully on the way to the hospital, but unfortunately if the brain goes without oxygen for 4 minutes or more, the chance of brain damage is high.

Brittany was lucky; she didn't suffer too much, but after that day, she never was quite the same.

4 minutes - life changer.

* * *

Kurt: He was six years old the day his whole life changed. It came out of nowhere, too. One minute he had been sitting with his mother, playing Junior Scrabble, the next she had fallen to the floor and hadn't gotten up. Eyes wide. Staring. Unmoving. Her smile had not even had time to fully slip from her face. Kurt immediately knew something was wrong, because when he nudged her, she didn't move, and when he said, "Stop it mum, you're scaring me," she remained still.

The little six-year-olds eyes didn't leave his mother's prone form when he went to retrieve the phone. His dad was at work - he would be unreachable - Kurt dialled 9-1-1, like he'd been taught.

"Hello, 9-1-1, what's your emergency?" a woman's voice answered.

The little boy opened his mouth, but didn't quite know what to say. In a timid voice he managed, "H-Hello…my mother is…she fell, and now she's all still and she won't move…not even when I touch her," Kurt all but whispered into the phone as he moved over to her, "And she's…I think she's getting…um…cold…a bit."

"Ok sweetheart, can you tell me your address?" the woman asked in a kind, yet slightly urgent voice.

"Uhh…one two four…um, Wickmore…I think," he murmured, still staring at his mother.

"Ok honey, sit tight, an ambulance is on the way," she told him.

He supposed he was meant to stay on the phone, because the lady was still talking, but he gently placed it in the phone cradle and looked fearfully back at his mother. He couldn't understand why she hadn't moved. He knew that he should have realised what had happened, but his brain just couldn't make the connection…anything but that.

He sat down next to her, unable to do anything else. He couldn't speak, couldn't move, couldn't even cry. He stared down at her with wide eyes. He glanced up at the clock every now and then, and 3 minutes (which could easily fall into that mythical "longest of his life" category) after he had called, two men were running in the door. One of them picked him up and placed him on the couch, the other bent low over _her_.

Kurt watched fearfully as the man over his mother shook his head and pulled a sheet from the stretcher, and over her. He wanted to scream at them to do something, but his brain had disengaged.

It had taken all of 4 seconds for his mother to die of a brain aneurysm, but 4 awful minutes for him to figure it out.

4 minutes - life changer.

* * *

Puck: "God_dam_ you woman!" his father yelled in a drunken rage, "You fucking whore!"

Noah was crouched behind the counter in the kitchen as his father yelled and threw an empty bottle at his mother. Tears were streaking down his cheeks and he wanted to help his ma, but she had made him promise that he would stay hidden if his dad got violent.

"You're worthless, you fucking _bitch_!" he slurred.

Noah heard a dull thump and a stifled scream from his mother. Before his brain had even registered the movement, he had heaved himself off the floor and around the bench, right into his father. He jumped on his back and started to claw at the man's face. He was only 7 year old boy, so he couldn't really do that much damage, but he wrenched his father's head to the side, eliciting a yell. But suddenly his father had taken a big lurch backwards and was ramming him back into the wall. He slipped, winded, from his father's back. His dad kicked him once in the stomach, swore loudly and then stormed out the door.

Just like that, he was gone. With him went Noah, and in his place?

Puck was born.

4 minutes - life changer.

* * *

Tina: She had always hated public speaking, and so this speech was no different. She just had to think of a way to get out of it. She glanced up at the clock and saw that she had approximately 4 minutes until her speech was due to be given.

She could fake sick…but then they would call her mother and she always somehow knew when Tina was lying about that.

She could say that she forgot to do it…but then she would get in trouble off her dad when he found out and she was more afraid of that than having to give the speech.

She looked at the clock again - two and a half minutes to go.

She could just give the speech and get it over with…but that was just not an option.

She could…she could…

1 minute.

She could…

30 seconds.

Uhh…

"Tina?" she was suddenly being called.

She shakily stood up and made her way to the front of the class…when suddenly she was struck by a brilliant idea.

She opened her mouth to begin, "G-g-g-g-good mmm-m-mor-morning c-c-cl-cl-class," her teacher's face suddenly fell and she knew she had succeeded, "M-mmm-m-my s-sp-sp-speech i-i-is o-o-o-on -"

"Ok Tina," the teacher flashed an overly large smile to make up for the interruption, then quickly looked over at another little girl with brown curls, "Perhaps we should give Emily a go, huh? I think we missed her. Why don't you sit down sweetie?"

She knew that she had lai it on thick, but it had worked, so from then on whenever she spoke, she was just 'that girl with the stutter'.

4 minutes - life changer.

* * *

Artie: He loved riding shotgun - it meant you got to see everything. Where you were going. The cars going to opposite way on the other side of the road. Cars going the opposite way on the _same _side of the road…?

The crash was reported on the news as 'The worst crash to hit Lima since the Caldwell Crash back in '93'. Artie and his mother were in a family van - the other guy was driving a VW Bug, meaning that his car was torn through like tissue paper. He died instantly where he fell…all five places that he fell.

It was a pretty isolated street, so the ambulance took about 15 minutes to get there. Artie was conscious for the whole thing. The scream from his mother. The deafening crash. The crunch of metal on wood as the van crumpled against the tree. His own pain-filled scream. The sudden numbness as shock overtook him. The silence. Oh god, the silence. Precisely 4 minutes after his mother had screamed. After all, it doesn't take long for a car to crash.

4 minutes - life changer.

* * *

Quinn: Never in her life. _Never_ had she felt so terrified. Never had she felt so _anything_. The results of this test were the most important ones she would ever receive. Which was ironic, because it was the shortest exam she had ever taken, if you catch my drift. You know…like…and "exam", aheh heh heh.

Sex. I'm talking about sex.

Anyway, the box had said 3 minutes. She waited 4, because 1) She really didn't want to look, 2) She wanted to give it a little time, just to make sure, and 3) She _really_ didn't want to look.

After 4 minutes were up, she gingerly lifted the test. She had ever hated the colour pink so much. She felt destroyed. Smashed to smithereens. Decimated to debris. Exploded into the ether.

All in all, she felt pretty shit.

4 minutes - life changer.

* * *

Mr Schuester: He was supposed to have been able to trust her explicitly, more than anyone else on the planet. After all, she was his wife. But he thinks that maybe he always knew. At least a little. It's just…how does a person lie about that? When he found out, it wasn't just a simple 'Oh, ha ha, you got me. Our daughter never actually existed', oh no. It was like she, his daughter, had been killed. Physically torn from his life against his will. When someone lies about a life that you always knew - you _knew_ - was there…well it's devastating when you learn the truth, because how could you have known? How could you _possibly _have known? Things like that don't happen.

So he had ignored the signs, blinded by love and trust.

It only took 4 short minutes for him to realise that something was wrong. 4 minutes to go from something being wrong to discovering the truth. 4 minutes to steal away the girl he had fallen in love with.

4 fucking minutes.

4 minutes - life changer.

* * *

Matt: Matt's family never had family meetings - his brother's usually couldn't sit still long enough to have one - so when his mother called one, he wondered who had died. They started out talking about some family they had that lived in Australia. Matt had no idea why this mattered, but figured that it would be a segue into something else. Unfortunately he was right.

"Your father has been offered a position as the Australian correspondent for the company. It's such a good opportunity," she said, a little hesitantly and Matt's stomach dropped, "He's taken it."

"Wait, what?" Matt half-yelled as he stood quickly, "Hang on, shouldn't we…I dunno…_talk_ about this? What about us? Don't we get a say? What about our lives? Friends? School? I don't want to…I…_what_?"

"I'm sorry honey, but we discussed it and it's what's best," she held her ground firmly, then as Matt opened his mouth to argue, she added, "It won't be hard to make new friends at your new schools."

"I like the friends I have _now_!" Matt yelled, really losing his temper.

"It's decided Matthew. And don't you take that tone of voice with me, young man," his mother scolded him sternly, and he knew that there would be no swaying her decision.

In four short weeks they'd be on a plane to the furthest place from every he knew and everything he had ever known. Everything familiar to him would be completely gone from his life.

The meeting had been a short one, but it left a very bitter taste in his mouth.

4 minutes - life changer.

* * *

Rachel: It had taken her 3 weeks to crack after her father died. Her daddy. It had happened just 1 week into senior year. He had died in a car crash on the way to pick up Rachel from a dance lesson. Her dad blamed her. He never said it…but he blamed her. She hadn't told Glee, because what business was it of theirs? So they continued to be awful to her, blissfully unaware of the damage that they were doing, because the difference then was that her defences were down and let it all get to her

The depression manifested itself quickly and aggressively. She couldn't cope with their constant jeers, so she orchestrated the suicide hurriedly. She spent exactly 4 minutes attempting to create a noose that would hold her up. The whole time, she remained eerily calm and patient. When she was satisfied, she threw one end around the rafters, climbed onto the stool and slipped the noose around her neck. She kicked the stool out from under her, but she hadn't tied the knot for the noose properly, and so it didn't kill her immediately. She was unconscious from lack of air by the time Mr Schue wandered in, saw her, rushed over and hoisted her up so that he could reach up and untie the noose from around her neck. She was barely breathing, but she had survived.

When she got out of hospital, her depression was still so bad that she spent most of her time in intensive therapy. People had been to visit her in hospital, but she had expressly ignored them and they had eventually stopped coming. She saw no one except her dad, who had started paying more attention to her, and she found that she kind of liked when they weren't around because she didn't feel so goddam awful all the time.

When she was more mentally stable, and allowed to go back to school, she finally felt like she was worth something. She was more able to channel the grief over her daddy's death into something less destructive, and it felt better than before. It occurred to her that she didn't miss anyone from McKinley High and she realised that it was because no one liked or missed _her_. Her dad gave her the opportunity to change schools and she quickly took it.

After that, Rachel Berry dropped off the grid in regards to the kids from McKinley. She deleted her Myspace and Facebook, and changed her email and phone number. No one even tried visiting her house, and she figured that that was a good thing.

She didn't even speak to a member of New Directions until about 9 years later. Her son was balanced on her hip as they walked through the supermarket in San Diego where she lived with her husband. She accidentally bumped into a tall man with a bit of a goofy grin.

"Oh, excuse me," she said, and side-stepped around him as she looked directly at him.

"That's all right," he smiled at her, "I should probably watch where I'm going."

Not another word was said and the two parted ways, never to see each other again. Neither one recognised the other - not even a little.

4 minutes - life changer.

* * *

Santana: The doctor had called her back into the office the day after she'd had the tests. She knew that this meant one of two things; it was bad, or it was _really_ bad.

"Santana…I'm afraid you have HIV," Dr Aulfield told her quite abruptly.

She didn't know what to say or do - she was only 18 years old, for crying out loud! Unfortunately for her, her whorish tendencies had come back to bite her. Of course, up until that point, she had never actually considered herself a whore, but she was, she knew she was.

She went home from the doctor's office in a daze. She didn't cry until the door to her room was firmly shut and locked.

She could remember the guy, she knew who gave it to her. He was the only guy she hadn't used protection with. She thought that maybe she should call him, maybe he had no idea…but she just…she didn't want to _tell _anyone. Plus he was a terrible lay anyway - she had no intention of calling back a guy who couldn't last more then 4 minutes; she _had_ standards.

Not anymore though, because now she's slowly wasting away in a hospital bed.

4 minutes - life changer

* * *

Mercedes: She had been walking down the street at about 9:30 at night and if it weren't for the street lamps dotted at regular intervals down the road, it would have been pitch black. She was usually home by this point, but she had been kept late at work to help her partner, Lola, finish designing a jacket that they had been working on. She was feeling very nervous and wondered why on earth she hadn't just hailed a cab to take her back to her New York apartment. Every now and then she passed another person walking down the street, but she just kept her head down and didn't look at anyone that she passed. It wasn't a long walk from the design studio that she owned with Lola, usually about a 6 minute walk. But tonight she was close to running, so it took her only four until her building was in sight.

When she was quite close to her apartment, she looked up in relief, but something in an alleyway caught her eye. She wished to God that she had just kept her eyes down, because right there in front of her was…well she didn't even know if it was a man or a woman. A _body_ was lying there, torn limb from limb, and the torso was completely eviscerated. It was the most disgusting, horrifying and nauseating scene that she had ever laid eyes upon.

"Oh God," she whispered in a horrified voice as she staggered back several steps, almost onto the road, then she promptly threw up.

Those were the last two words that Mercedes Jones ever said. Something changed in her that night and she found that she could not even force a word to pass her lips.

4 minutes - life changer.

* * *

Mike: He had been a professional dancer since he had scored a gig choreographing several Broadway shows after doing a few bit jobs. It was his dream job and he couldn't be happier. His wife, Rachel (also his high-school sweetheart), always loved it when she was working on the same show as him, and, as a couple, they couldn't be happier.

He was 33, she was 32 with their first baby on the way when disaster struck. He had been in a harness demonstrating a move when suddenly the machine controlling it malfunctioned and tossed him jerkily to the side. The toss caused one side of the harness to buckle as he was twisted around, and the resulting ripping sound signified the tearing of said harness. In all of the commotion, he was wasn't exactly sure what had happened, or indeed how it had, but he didn't have much time to think about it, because he was hanging from the broken harness by one hand, the other having been wrenched hard with a possible dislocation in his shoulder.

"Mike!" he heard Rachel shriek from where she stood in the wings, watching.

He was suspended twenty metres above the stage with no way to get down. Stage hands and performers alike were running around frantically trying to locate a double ended ladder high enough to reach him. Mike just held on as tight as he could with his one good arm. He could still hear Rachel yelling his name, but he gritted his teeth and ignored any sound around him.

He lasted a total of 4 minutes before he slipped and fell to the floor with a sickening crack. His scream mixed in with Rachel's in shared anguish as she ran towards him. He chanced a look at the leg that he had landed the hardest on. The bone was poking well and truly through the skin and his knee was at a ninety-degree angle…sideways. He fainted immediately upon seeing it.

When he woke up two days later with Rachel sitting and sobbing by his bedside, he felt an odd numb feeling in his left leg. He knew something was wrong almost instantly. Of course when he looked down at the bed, he understood why he couldn't feel his leg - it wasn't there. He stared in horror as Rachel flung her arms around his neck and sobbed, "I'm sorry! I'm suh-so sorry! They made me choose and they said that if we left it, you might die and I couldn't…I-I…Michael I'm so sorry, I love you so much! I couldn't lose you!"

He said nothing for a long while, trying to process what had happened. After a very long time, he managed, "I-I…I love you. We'll make it through this together and…I love you."

4 minutes - life changer.

* * *

Sam: This was one of those rare times when he was actually glad that he was at the hospital. His wife, Tahlia, was in labour and she was lying down in a hospital bed, occasionally clutching his hand tightly when she was having a contraction. The reason that he was _so_ happy to be at the hospital was that Tahlia had wanted to have a home birth, but Sam had been entirely opposed to the idea.

"It's not safe!" he had insisted.

"It's just as safe as a hospital if you do it right," Tahlia had told him calmly, "It's what I want."

"Tahlia…I can't let you do that. I know that you'd prefer it, but that's my son or daughter too, and I…just love you both too much for anything to happen to either of you," he had murmured softly and taken her hand.

She gave him this softened look and then tears began to well in her eyes and she nodded softly, "O-Ok…I love you too."

And so back at the hospital, Sam was so glad that she had agreed, because here she could get only the very best care and nothing would go wrong.

"Ok Mrs Evans, you're fully dilated now. Let's get you a baby," the nurse smiled happily and Tahlia turned to beam at Sam.

She held his hand tightly as the nurse wheeled her to the delivery room and the smile on her face was only interrupted when she was having another contraction. When she was all set up on the bed, she looked up at Sam with her face all sweaty and already a little red and said, "I may tell you some things today that I don't mean but I love you so much."

He smiled and kissed her hand as the doctor who would be delivering the baby busied himself with getting perfectly ready. 10 minutes after Tahlia had been settled into the bed, the doctor was saying to her, "Ok I need you to push for me Mrs Evans!"

Sam clutched her hand in both of his as she let out a small scream. Sam hated seeing her like this - in pain - but was so proud of her for being so brave. He was softly coaching her and telling her that she was doing great but she seemed to be ignoring him. Either way, his heart leapt about a mile when the doctor announced, "The baby is crowning!"

Tahlia let out this breathy little laugh, which quickly turned into a tiny sound of pain. Sam could picture himself holding his child in his arms. If it was a boy he'd teach him football and how to be a man. If it was a girl he'd spoil her with clothes and dolls and beat any boy's ass who tried to go out with her. Their little family would be perfect and they would always be going to the zoo or the park or the -

"Ok, we have a bit of a problem," the doctor suddenly said to the nurse.

Immediately his happy thought bubble was popped and he felt it quickly deflating around him. He was about to ask what was wrong but Tahlia beat him to it, "What? What's wrong? Is the baby ok?"

"For now, yes. The umbilical cord has wrapped around the baby's neck. It's not entirely common, but it can happen," the doctor told them, "It's too late to switch to a C-section now, so we'll just have to do the best we can. Your baby still has a very good chance of being unharmed and perfectly healthy, there's nothing to worry about"

After that, things started to go very wrong.

Sam watched in horror as his baby - his son - was birthed…but never made a sound. It had been about 4 minutes since the doctor had claimed that something was wrong, but it felt like all the time in the world. His little son - Nicolai, they had agreed on if it was a boy - was so, _so_ tiny, and so precious. Tahlia was in tears, almost hysterics, but he was just in shock. He held his sobbing wife close, but could think of absolutely nothing to say to her. Their firstborn…their son…had not survived. The doctors whisked him away to clean him up when neither parent responded to the question of whether or not they wanted to hold him. As soon as his son was out of the room, he wished that he had said yes. But now he couldn't breathe. It was like when his son left the room, he took all the air with him. He climbed onto the bed next to his wife and stroked her hair as she cried into his shoulder.

After he had been cleaned, they brought Nicolai back into the room and asked again if they wanted to hold him. Sam immediately said yes and held out his arms for his son. It felt like he was holding nothing, so light was his son, and it looked like he could have just been sleeping. But there was no rise and fall of his little chest and no soft gurgles and…he was far too still.

"Let me hold him," Tahlia managed to say in a ragged voice, "Let me hold my son."

Sam immediately, but carefully, deposited the tiny bundle into his wife's arms.

"He's so small…and so beautiful," she murmured and Sam nodded as he placed an arm around her and used his other hand to stroke his son's cheek, "He has my nose. But he has your mouth. He's…he's…perfect," the last word was whispered, almost breathed over their little son. And he was. He was the most perfect baby that Sam had ever seen.

4 minutes - life changer.

* * *

Finn: He set his little girl down in her high chair and returned to the stove. Idelle, his wife, had somehow taught him how to cook, and though he wasn't amazing, he knew how to make several staple dished. That night he was making pasta prima vera.

He glanced back at Sicily, his daughter, as she gurgled happily at him. He turned back to the stove, reaching for his phone to text Idelle to ask when she'd be home. When his hand didn't find his phone, he looked over to see that it wasn't there and then remembered that he had left it somewhere in his and Idelle's bedroom. He looked at the pasta, then at Sicily, then figured that he'd only be gone a few minutes.

He rummaged around in his room until he found it and texted Idelle. He lifted his head from the phone display when a frown when he smelt something odd, something…smoky. It was then that he realised that Sicily was crying, almost screaming. Heart pounding in his chest, he raced back out to the hall, only to see smoke pouring out of the kitchen. Without a second thought, he charged through the door, but staggered back at the sight. Half the kitchen was already ablaze, and it was spreading rapidly. He grabbed the screaming Sicily and charged out of the house. He yelled for help, and before he knew it, three of his neighbours had run out of their houses.

"Please, hold Sicily," he said hurriedly to Mr Jackson next door, and then pushed the screaming infant into his arms before turning and dashing back into the burning nouse.

He had no idea how this had happened - he hadn't been gone longer than 4 minutes - but he knew that there were some things he needed to save. In his mind he sorted through what he should get, but he started to get frazzled, so he just grabbed his phone, which he had dropped, Idelle's camera and one of Sicily's favourite toys. By that time, the fire had really taken off, so as he blundered out of the house, he accidentally swallowed a few lungfuls of smoke.

He saw Idelle, hands over her mouth, standing just outside her car as she looked on in horror.

"Finn!" she screamed, then ran up to hug him tight, "Oh thank god you're ok. Where's Sicily, Finn? Where is my baby?"

"It's ok," Finn wheezed and pointed at Mr Jackson, who had not noticed Idelle's arrival.

She quickly rushed over and pulled they little girl into her arms. She went back to Finn and he wrapped his arms around them. The family watched on, in tears, as their house and their home burnt, all of their possessions along with it. They heard the sirens in the distance, but it would be too late to save Finn's childhood blanket from his father, the photos and videos of Sicily's first year of life (except for the few on Idelle's camera), Idelle's wedding dress.

Everything. Gone.

4 minutes - life changer.


	18. Rachantana Friendship1

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: Good Vibrations

Characters: Rachel, Santana

Genre: Friendship/Humor

Summary: Rachel is getting married to Noah 'Puck' Puckerman, but unfortunately he has joined the Navy. Good thing Santana has got her covered for his long nights at sea.

"**Santana! I thought you were on holiday with Finn," Rachel exclaimed as she let the Latina into her apartment, "I wasn't expecting you back for another three days."**

"**Finn caught some weird bug and we had to come home," Santana told her, "He's ok, it seemed worse than it was. Either way, I was sort of glad that we came home early because Boca is kind of boring after the first week."**

"**I'm sure you two still had fun though, right?" Rachel asked with a smile.**

"**Oh, we sure had **_**fun**_**," Santana said, throwing in a wink for good measure.**

**Rachel blushed and admonished Santana with a quick, "That's **_**not**_** what I meant, and you know it!"**

**Santana held up her hands in mock surrender, "Ok, ok. I get it. Prude doesn't want to talk about sex."**

"**I am **_**not **_**a prude!" Rachel exclaimed with a huff.**

"**Relax, I know you're not. Puck wouldn't propose to anyone who wasn't a beast in the sack," Santana smiled innocently.**

"**I'm starting to regret letting you in," Rachel grumbled.**

"**No you're not Rach," Santana smirked, "Is Puck here?"**

"**Noah is at work at the moment," Rachel replied.**

"**Perfect," Santana said as her smirk widened.**

**Rachel narrowed her eyes suspiciously, "Why? You're not going to ask me to have three-way with you and Finn again, are you?"**

**Santana actually laughed here and said, "No. I can tell that it would just make you angry. We can save that for another time."**

"**Well then why is it perfect that Noah isn't here?" Rachel questioned, her suspicious look returning.**

"**Puck just joined the Navy, right?" **

"**Right."**

"**And sometimes he'll be gone for weeks, maybe months on end, right?"**

"…**right."**

"**And since you're just a bundle of desperation - in the best way possible - you might get kind of lonely, right?"**

"**I'm **_**not**_** desperate. I just enjoy companionship."**

"**Right, whatever, same thing. Well, I just wanted to tell you that I have something for you that might keep you…**_**busy**_** while Puck is gone."**

"**Santana, for the last time, I don't want to 'explore my sexual preferences with you **_**just in case**_**'! I really am quite content with Noah."**

"**That's not what I was going to say! I was **_**going**_** to say that I got something for you while we were in Boca," Santana's grin was stretching wide and Rachel was very worried as to what had been purchased for her.**

**Santana rummaged in her bag and brought out a small box. She passed it to Rachel and the sat back with a smile. Rachel sat it on her knees and stared down at it, then looked over to Santana with a somewhat apprehensive expression, "What is it?"**

"**Open it and see," Santana pressed and Rachel sighed.**

**She gingerly lifted the lid and placed it beside her. She lifted the top layer of paper off and stared down at what was in the box, then repeated, "Um…what is it?"**

**It was a smallish, pink cylinder with a slight curvature to it and a tiny set of switches on one end.**

"**A vibrator," Santana smiled and watched as Rachel, predictably, let out a squeal and pulled away the hand that had just been reaching for it, "I chose pink because you're such a girly girl that I didn't want to get a colour you wouldn't like."**

"**You got me a…a…" here Rachel stopped, as though unwilling to say, and then lowered her voice considerably, as though someone might hear her, "**_**sex**__**toy**_**?"**

"**Yes Rachel, I gave you a dildo," Santana told her. Rachel gasped, covered her mouth with one hand and with the other, she pointed an accusing finger at Santana, "Rachel, you're 25 years old and about to get married to Puck Puckerman. Please tell me that you aren't going to act like a 5 year old just because I said the word 'dildo'."**

"**But I…you take it with you. I really don't need it…a-and I wouldn't know th-the first thing to…um…I don't need…you can have it," Rachel stuttered as her eyes darted around nervously.**

"**Don't get so flustered Rach. It's not embarrassing to have a vibrator. Hell, I have five! Anyway, if you're so embarrassed, you don't have to tell anyone. Not even Puck," Santana smiled at Rachel again.**

"**But…I really…I don't think…" Rachel mumbled helplessly as she neatly replaced the lid on the box and tried to pass it back to Santana.**

"**Look, I'll make you a deal. You keep it for a few days, and give it a go - just one!" she insisted as Rachel tried to protest, "And if you don't like it, you can get rid of it."**

"**I just…" she began but Santana glared at her. Loathe as she was to admit it, even after all these years, Rachel was still a little scared of Santana's glare. So she finally caved and said, "Ok, but if I don't…want it, you have to get rid of it for me, because I don't want to throwing this out and risk someone seeing it."**

"**Fine," Santana smirked.**

**Three days later, Noah and Rachel invited Santana and Finn round for dinner. They had finished the dinner and were about to go onto dessert, so Rachel excused herself from the table to go and get the three small pavlovas and her own vegan muffin.**

"**I might go and see if she needs any help," Santana smiled and slipped into the kitchen behind the small brunette.**

**Rachel turned with the tray in her hands and nearly dropped it when she saw Santana standing in the doorway, "Oh Santana, you scared me."**

"**So how'd it go?"**

"**I…what do you mean?"**

"**You know exactly when I mean. Did you luuurve it?"**

**Rachel blushed and ducked her head, "I…it was perfectly…absurd. I'll, uh…I'm getting rid of it tomorrow actually."**

"'**Absurd'? You just described a vibrator as 'absurd'?" Santana laughed softly, "And I thought you wanted me to get rid of it."**

"**Yes, well…I don't want to force that imposition onto you. I can do it," Rachel insisted.**

"**Really Rachel, it's no trouble," Santana told the girl, "Here, where is it? I can put it in my bag now."**

"**No!" Rachel half-yelled She flushed and then ducked her head again, "Uh…I mean…no, no, it's quite all right for me to do it."**

**Then suddenly it clicked and Santana realised why Rachel was so insistent about not giving it to her, "Ok Rachel. You can **_**get rid of it**_**," Rachel lifted her head to reply, but then she caught Santana's wink and dropped it again, her face as red as a tomato.**

**A/N Classic Santana.**

**Reviews are love!**


	19. Puckleberry2

**CHAPTER NINETEEN: Somebody To Love**

**Characters: Puckleberry, Finn, Mike, Brittany, Santana, Sarah (Puck's little sister), Brendan (Mike's little brother), Jeremy (Brittany's son [with Artie])**

**Dedicated to: alltimealexandria**

**Genre: Romance**

**Summary: He's so goddam lucky to have her and now here she is in front of him like some white vision from heaven.**

He feels kind of uncomfortable in his tuxedo and he is looking forward to taking it off very much (for more reasons than one). He is standing at the altar and looking back down the aisle. He vaguely hears the wedding march start and he glances nervously at his ma. She is sitting in the front row and he already see tears on her face. Mentally he facepalms and hopes to god that she doesn't start sobbing loudly. He looks back to the aisle and sees Finn and Brittany making their way down. Finn is his best man and Brittany is Rachel's maid of honour. Their friendship had sort of blossomed in senior year when they were partnered together for a Glee assignment. The pairing sort of surprised everyone, because even after the assignment had been completed, the two could still be found sitting together at lunch and sometimes Rachel drove the blonde cheerleader home after school had finished. Of course, since Brittany was hanging around with Rachel, that meant that Santana was too. That friendship had been an even bigger surprise, but they seemed to get along quite well. Seven years later and here they were.

When that pair reaches the front, Finn claps him on the back and goes to stand behind him while Brittany stands behind where Rachel will soon be standing. She looks lovely in her light blue dress, but he quickly looks back up the aisle, impatient for Rachel's arrival. They had spent the night before apart (something that Rachel had insisted on) and he had missed her so much. They hadn't spent a single night apart in over four years, and he knows that he doesn't ever want to spend the night apart in the future.

He sees Santana and Mike now making their way down the aisle and Mike gives him a reassuring smile, sensing his nervousness. He had told Puck before that he could sense emotions because he was an Asian-superninja and Puck had told him that he was full of shit, but sometimes Puck wondered if it was true, because he could never hide anything from that guy. It was one of the reasons that they had become fast friends once school finished. They had ended up going to the same college, and though they were doing different courses, the friendship grew. Once when he and Rachel had been going through their first (and only) rough patch, he had moved in with Mike and his family for a little bit. He thought that Mike's little brother was pretty cool, and so the arrangement had worked out well. Of course he had quickly moved back in with Rachel when he bucked up and apologised for whatever it was he had done (he honestly can't remember now).

Once Mike and Santana are in place, the next pair begins their walk down the aisle. It's Sarah, his 16 year old sister, and Brendan, Mike's 18 year old brother. He doesn't like the way she looks at him every other step and giggles, and he starts to think that maybe Brendan _isn't_ so cool. But he quickly pushes it out of his mind, because the last thing he needs is to threaten Mike's little brother during his wedding.

He smiles when he sees Jeremy, a little two and a half year old boy, tottering down the aisle holding a pillow that contains both of the rings. He has this tiny little tuxedo on, and he is smiling around at the people in the aisle seats. He is Brittany and Artie's only son, and Rachel had said that she wouldn't have anyone else as their ring bearer. Every time she looks at her godson, this look of pure love floods her face and Puck knows that she loves him like he is her own. Even though it's probably not that badass (he has grown up a _little _since high school), he always thinks to himself that he can't wait until she is looking at their own children like that.

Once the little boy has reached the altar and Brittany has taken the little pillow from him, he giggles and runs over to his father, who sweeps him into his lap and they both look back to the front. Puck then looks back up at the aisle, and suddenly everything else quickly flies from his mind, because there she is, making her way to him. She had made sure that he didn't sneak a peek of her wedding dress, but he is instantly in love with it, because it hugs her in all the right places down to her waist where it flares out. She is flanked on either side by her father's and they are escorting her down the aisle. He notices that the dress is giving her a little more cleavage than normal, and usually he wouldn't like that because he didn't some slack-jawed yokel ogling his woman (or Mike, for that matter, as has happened once or twice before). But he finds that this time he loves it, because he is so in love with her and there is not a single thing about her that annoys him. Nothing that irks him. Nothing that even slightly makes him think 'Eh'. She is perfect. And she is about to be his.

He wishes that the woman playing the piano would speed the song up a little, because Rachel is only halfway down the aisle, and he really needs to feel her hand in his again. He looks up at her face and suddenly everything else leaves and it's just her and him, as she has locked eyes with him and he just knows that she feels the same way. He has never seen her smile so wide, except maybe for the time that he proposed to her. Her eyes are slight with pure, unadulterated joy and he is sure that his must mirror hers. Finally, _finally_, she has reached the front and each of her fathers take turns lifting her veil and pressing kisses to her cheeks, then they both go to sit down.

Rachel steps up to the altar alone, and turns to give her bouquet to Brittany, who accepts it with a smile and also gives her a kiss on the cheek. Then Rachel turns back to him and he holds out his hand. She takes it and suddenly he feels complete.

Rachel and Noah Puckerman. Forever.

**A/N Aww, yay!**


	20. Santana1

**CHAPTER TWENTY: Bad Romance**

**Charaters: Santana/OC**

**Genre: Angst**

**Summary: She wonders when the relationship first started to turn sour. She wonders when he first thought about hitting her and whether it's her fault or his. She wonders when she got so far into this shitty relationship that she started to find it almost impossible to get out.**

"Just leave," Damien growls at her.

Santana wants to give him sass. She really does. But she knows that if she backtalks him, he'll just hit her again, and she knows that she'll be powerless to stop him. So she grabs her bag and quickly high-tails it out the door.

She doesn't dare try to take the car, so she just starts to walk.

She hates the way he does that to her. Makes her feel like a helpless little girl who can't do anything. She remembers when he first started to do it, but it still makes her angry.

** flashback **

They've been together for half a year, and Santana is the happiest she's ever been. He treats her like a queen, and she is nothing but the perfect girlfriend. So when he comes home drunk one day, it kind of surprises her because she's never even seen him drink before.

"I didn't know you drank," she smirks as she tries to usher him to bed.

But he suddenly yanks his arm out of her hands and begins to slur, "Y'don't even fucking know any…anything about me. Don't touch me, you're filthy. Fuck off."

"Damien, you're drunk so I'll forgive you this time, but if you ever talk to me like that, I swear to god I'll leave you so fucking fast, your head will spin," she tells him firmly as she plants a hand on her hip. After all, she's not a fucking pushover - not even close.

She feels the slap before she even sees him move his hand. She knees him in the groin and he grunts but doesn't go down. She's tough, but she's not an idiot - Damien is quite strong - so she turns to run to her room where she plans to lock the door, but he grabs her around the waist and pulls her back to him.

"Don'chu fucking touch me!" he yells again and she thinks to herself that that's a stupid thing to say because he's the one holding her tight.

Suddenly he throws her against the wall and fists his hand in her hair so that he can ram her face against the plaster. She lets out a scream and flings her elbow back. It hits him in the face and he yells as he loses his grip on her and falls backwards.

"You're a piece of _shit_ Damien!" she yells and runs to the door while he's still down.

She stays with Brittany that night, and for the next three nights after that. Brittany and her boyfriend Adrian tell Santana that she should break up with him, and even though her heart actually aches at the thought, she agrees. But when she goes to collect some of her stuff while she thinks that Damien will be out at work, she finds him sitting at the table in the little kitchen eating biscuits that look stale. At the sound of the door she sees him lift his head and turn to her, and she can see that he looks terrible. He clearly hasn't shaved sincde she left, and probably hasn't washed either.

"Oh god, Santana! Please, _please _come back. I love you and I'm so sorry!" he half-sobs, and he looks so crazed that she forgives him almost instantly for hitting her, "God, I…that's why I usually don't drink. But Harry bought me one beer, and I just, I couldn't stop, oh God, please don't go again!"

She knows that she should know better, but she just can't help it. She has never felt so strongly for anyone - the heart wants what the heart wants. She allows Damien to stagger over and wrap her in a hug, even though the sassy Latina in her is screaming at her to hate him, she just can't do it. So she moves back in with him.

It's another 4 weeks before anything like that happens again. Except this time he hasn't been drinking at all. He just seems to hate the way she does the eggs.

"God, you _know_ I hate eggs! Are you retarded?" he yells at her, seemingly out of nowhere.

She is momentarily stunned by his outburst, since he hadn't even been a little bit annoyed two seconds previously. When she regains her powers of speech she snaps, "Well then maybe you should get your own damn breakfast. I don't _have _to make it, you jackass."

He stares at her with a look of what can only be described as revulsion, then throws down his fork and flings the plate of breakfast into the wall, "And I didn't _ask_ you to! If you're going to do something for me, just try not to fuck it up, like you do everything else in your life!"

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" Santana screams at him angrily, and silently hopes that their neighbours don't call the cops or something.

"Are you a fucking idiot? Do you need everything spelled out for you?" he asks her in a mock-serious voice.

"Don't you dare speak to me that way," she hisses at him.

"I'll speak to you however I goddam please," he tells her in a condescending voice.

"Get out of my house. I will not be forced out again," she tells him firmly and narrows her eyes angrily.

Before she has a chance to react, he has taken three long strides towards her and backhanded her hard across the face. She stands there shocked, and is about to tear him a new one when suddenly he has his hands over his mouth and he has moved away from her.

"Santana…I'm so sorry…I don't know…I don't know what came over me. It's just…I think that I might get fired at work and if I do, I don't know what I'm going to do for money, and I just…I want the best for you, baby, because I love you so much," he murmurs, and even though Santana isn't happy with it, his voice is just so small and timid that she knows - she _knows_ - that he is sorry and that it won't happen again.

But it does.

A lot.

She just…she _knows _that she needs to leave him, but every time it happens, he tells her he loves her and that he's sorry. If she paid a little more attention, she'd realise that that's actually the _only _times that he says that he loves her, but she doesn't because _she_ loves _him_. She loves the way he treats her when he's not being aggressive, and it's really only once every few weeks, so it's nothing to worry about. Brittany and Adrian know what's going on, even though Santana hasn't told them - her bruises aren't always entirely covered when she goes to visit them. They refuse to come over for dinner any more. They often have Santana around, but even then, they tell her not to bring Damien. This, however, just makes Damien think that Santana is cheating on him with someone who she meets at Brittany and Adrian's house. He starts to beat her more often.

She barely even notices herself breaking a little on the inside. No longer is she that tough Latina who won't let anyone push her around - _she_ got lost along the way and Santana hasn't even noticed…not really. The change was quite gradual.

She resents Damien, but she doesn't hate him, because she does still love him. She always used to wonder why women stayed in abusive relationships, but now she realises that it's because you just can't help who you love. Plus Damien isn't _abusive_…he's just…he can be a bit physical sometimes. But he always tells her that he loves her and then treats her like a queen for about a day before the cycle starts again.

Sometimes when she goes into the bathroom to clean a cut, she looks at herself in the mirror and tells herself that she's going to leave. Once she even packed her bags the next day while he was at work and she had a day off, but she quickly unpacked them when he sent her a text that said '_I love you more than anything baby_'.

She wonders if she'll ever get the courage to leave, or if she's doomed to this two-faced relationship for the rest of her days.

**A/N I don't think I captured Santana in this one. **

**Let me know what you think.**

**Also let me know if there are any pairings not yet attempted that you would like me to have a crack at and I'll give it a whack.**


	21. Samchel1

**CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: Stronger**

**Characters: Samchel**

**Genre: Romance**

**Summary: She makes him want to work harder. She makes him want to be stronger. She makes him want her more than anything in his life. Eventually it works out that their entire relationship can be traced back to Glee assignments.**

When he had 'proposed' to Quinn, he had made the biggest mistake of his life. He didn't _know _her - didn't _know _exactly what sort of person she was - which is why he was so shocked (and a little relieved, truth be told) when she cheated on him with Finn, who had been reinstated as quarterback. Sure, it sucked and he looked like a bit of an idiot, but he was glad that at least it had happened before he had invested _too _much time into the relationship. It gave him a little pleasure that Finn didn't stay with her, claiming that he still had feelings for Rachel. That boy was seriously messed up when it came to relationships, and it was little wonder that he had not had a _real_ relationship that lasted longer than a month. Quinn had come back to Sam, but he had rebuffed her, saying that he was not a toy to be played with, then put aside when something better came up.

Three weeks later, and he is finally starting to actually _see_ the other girls in the school. It is a little bit of a shock for him when he walks into Glee one day to see Rachel sitting there and he feels…_joy_ wash over him when he first notices that it is just the two of them. It is a little strange when he realises that that's what the buoyant feeling in his chest is, because he's never even really paid that much attention to the girl. Sure, he knows that she has an amazing voice (and equally as amazing legs), but he's never noticed much more than that.

"Hello Sam," she grins and he offers a wide grin right back at her.

"Hi," he says, scratching the back of his neck with one hand as he sits down in a seat and places his bag at his feet, "So…uh…what song did you pick for the assignment?"

"I can't _tell _you," she laughs softly, her eyes twinkling, "You'll have to wait and see."

He thinks that she probably doesn't even notice that she sounds flirty, but she does and _he_ notices. The assignment had been to choose a song that reflects anything that you may be feeling at that point in time. Sam has absolutely no idea what Rachel's might be about. Perhaps she will sing something about working towards Broadway, or maybe about Finn. He is fairly certain that he has approached her several times in the past two weeks to ask her to go out with him. To Sam's knowledge, she had said no, but perhaps he is wrong and the _are_ on their way to becoming an item again.

Either way, he keeps stealing glances at her as the room starts to fill up with the rest of the Gleeks. Rachel is sitting on his left side, and Mike flops down on his other side, however he is much too engrossed in conversation with Tina to pay any attention to the blonde-haired boy. As Mr Schue walks in, Rachel sits up a little straighter - if possible - and a wide grin splits across her face; she seems to be looking forward to this song very much. Again he wonders what she has chosen.

"Hey guys," Mr Schue grins, "Who wants to go first in the assignment?"

Of course, Rachel stands from her seat before even putting up her hand. Several groans ripple throughout the assembled teenagers, but Rachel ignores them. She moves to the front and turns to face everyone.

"As many of you know, my life, over the past month, has taken several tumultuous turns. I understand that most, if not all of you are entirely unsympathetic to my plight, however I choose to continue to hold my head high and ignore the harsh words that I know are said about me behind my back and to my face," she begins, a look of almost steely determination crossing her features, "The song I have chosen reflects my attitudes towards the person who has caused much of this emotional turmoil, and I hope the message becomes clear to that person."

Here, she cuts off her surprisingly short speech and turns to the band with a smile. The music begins in a sort of a simple, bouncy melody and then suddenly Rachel has opened her mouth and is singing, "Watching me like you never watched no one, don't tell me that you didn't try and check out my bum, cos I know that you did cos your friend told me that you liked it. Gave me those pearls and I thought they were ugly, don't you try and tell me that you never loved me - I know that you did, cos you said it and you wrote it down."

Unlike her usual performances, she doesn't look at anyone, choosing instead to look above the heads of the Gleeks. Sam doesn't recognise the song at all, but quickly realises that the song is directed at Finn, especially when she sings the chorus.

"Dancing at discos, eating cheese on toast, yeah you make me merry, make me very, very happy, but you obviously, you didn't want to stick around," she sings, and suddenly her eyes flick to Finn, who is staring at the floor quite determinedly, as if he might be able to bore a hole in it if he concentrates hard enough. Rachel repeats this little chorus, but it's the next line that shows Sam that Rachel is well and truly over Finn, "But you obviously, you didn't want to stick around. So I learnt from you."

The rest of the song consists of lines such as 'sitting in restaurants, thought we were so grown up, but I know now that we were not the people that we turned out to be' and 'chatting on the phone, can't take back those hours, but I won't regret cos you can grow flowers from where dirt used to be'. It makes Sam unexpectedly happy to hear that Rachel has finally gotten way over Finn and that she expects him to get that through the big ole' potato-head of his. As soon as Rachel has finished, half the club claps for her and the other half (namely Finn, Quinn, Santana and, oddly enough, Mercedes) glares at her. She gives a wide grin anyway, and flounces back to her seat, not even glancing at Finn.

"Ok, uh, thanks Rachel," Mr Schue says, but sounds slightly annoyed. Everyone is well aware of his flagrant favouritism where Finn concerned, "Anyone else?"

Sam hesitantly raises his hand to indicate that he would like to go next. Mr Schue nods at him and the smile returns to his face. Sam rises from his chair and moves to the front, turning to face the assembled teenagers, much like Rachel had. Oddly enough, his song is also directed at someone in the audience. He just wants Quinn to be aware of the relationship that she threw away and that he is not interested in her anymore, despite her repeated attempts to get him back. He has changed one or two of the lyrics, but other than that, the song remains intact.

"Um…like Rachel, my song is for someone in here, and…I guess the message is sort of similar…so…" he trailed off as he looks around at the band. He has a backing track to go with it, but some of the band is in it too, "Why take everything you see? You have nothing left to squander. You kept pushing me away, now you've no one left to love. You've thrown it all away…those ties you went and suffered for…you caused disaster," Sam sings loudly, looking at Quinn only for the words 'you caused disaster'. The music rises slightly and Sam launches into the chorus, "Why take everything you see? You have nothing left to squander. You kept pushing me ah-ah-way…now you've no one left to love. You're less than you should be. Why run so hard to finish? You caused resentment!" his voice is rising substantially now and he eyes are closed. He can feel the music flowing through him as he puts his all into the song, "And I wonder, wonder, wonder, wooondeeeerrr! Why take everything yo-ou see? You have nothing left to squander! You kept pushing me ah-ah-way, now you've no one left to loooooooo-oooove, loooooooooo-oooo-oooove," pausing for a small instrumental, Sam gathers his voice for the louder parts, "Why you squander, squander, squander, squaaa-aaandeeerrr? Why take everything yo-ou see? You have nothing left to squander! You kept pushing me ah-way-ay…now you've no one left to loooooooooooooo-oooooove, oh nooo-oh, ooohhhh, you kept pushing meee awaaay-ay-ay, now you've no one left to, no one left to love!" the song is supposed to stop here, but he adds, "I'm done," as if it were part of the song. Because he's _done_ with Quinn, even though she doesn't seem to realise.

For Sam, pretty much the same people clap as for Rachel's song. Quinn is staring at him, open-mouthed. Santana is eyeing him like she doesn't know whether to hate him or have sex with him (though she'd probably settle for both), Mercedes looks scandalised and Finn just looks sort of confused. Rachel, however, is clapping the most enthusiastically. This makes Sam…oddly happy, and…he feels a sense of pride descend over him as he smiles.

* * *

Over the next few weeks, Sam pays very close attention to Rachel (not in a stalker way). He starts to notice all these little things about her, like the way she cocks her head to the left when she is interested in what a teacher is saying, whereas if the teacher is talking about something a bit boring, she cocks her head to the right, or the way she hums under her breath in study hall. He never recognises any of the songs, but it makes him _want_ to know, because they always sound so beautiful. What he _doesn't_ notice, however, is that he is falling madly in love with a girl who probably barely even knows he exists anywhere other than Glee.

* * *

It's three weeks after he sings the song to Quinn in Glee that he becomes aware of his feelings. Their Glee assignment is to choose a song to sing to a person in their life who means more to them than they think they do. The reason for the assignment (even though he didn't say it - he didn't have to) is that Mr Schue has just hooked up with a woman that he sees every day at the shops. Sam knows this because he overheard Santana telling Quinn. Santana had overheard Mrs Pillsbury-Howell 'congratulating' him on finding a woman - they have the creepiest, weirdest relationship. Either way, the highly specific, and strange assignment gives Sam time to think about the people in his life. His family, of course, but it's supposed to be someone unexpected. The only other person to come to mind immediately is Rachel. He decides not to question the weird workings of his mind and figures that he will just sing a song about her but not tell anyone who it's for. But what kind of song does he want to sing?

The answer to that question comes to mind so quickly that he has no choice but to admit to himself that he is in love with the tiny brunette. Wholly and solely.

The following day in Glee when Mr Schue calls for volunteers, Sam hesitantly raises his hand before Rachel can leap to her feet. He wants to do this before he can find a way to back out.

"Ok, so this song is…for someone special," Sam says somewhat lamely as he looks over at the band and a lively melody picks up. Sam nods his head softly to the beat, then opens his mouth to begin, "On and on, the rain will fall, but I won't feel a thing. You just stroll on by…our eyes are yet to meet," here the longer notes turn into shorter, boppy ones, and Sam takes a breath as he concentrates on looking anywhere but Rachel, "And there is just one thing that I wish I said, and it's always running around my head, and if I was to see you one more time, I'd have to say it I don't know why; let's get togetheeeerrr-eeeerr-eerrr-er, let's get togetheeeerrr-eeeerr-eerrr-er. On and on, the sun will shine, the light breaks through the leaves. We'll stroll hand in hand but our eyes are yet to meet. I could make you tea and toast and rub your feet, we can snuggle on the couch and watch tv, and if you're cold I can chop some wood for the fire and I could give you piggy backs if you get tired, let's get togetheeeerrr-eeeerr-eerrr-er, let's get togetheeeerrr-eeeerr-eerrr-er, let's get togetheeeerrr-eeeerr-eerrr-er, let's get togetheeeerrr-eeeerr-eerrr-er. Why don't we get together?" Sam finishes off the song, repeating the line 'let's get together' until the music stops and then he blushes softly and returns to his seat.

Once again he is seated next to Rachel, and it's the only time he wishes that perhaps he was seated just a _little_ further away. His heart clenches just a little when she volunteers to go next, because he's worried that she's going to sing a song all about the boy she loves and then he's going to be all disappointed, because he knows it won't be him. Unfortunately he is proven correct when she begins her song (oddly enough, it's sans speech).

"Light will pour…out of your eyes. Down into…a field of spice. The grass is green…the sky is blue. Ah, the sun…bullies the moon. But I will make you see, that you belong to me. Stick me to you, nature needs no glue. Al-ways be true-ue. I would never…call you a pig. You are clever…and he is not. The lean in time…came way too fast. I want you…to collapse. So I can make you see, that you belong to me. Stick me to you, nature needs no glue. Al-ways be true-ue, ah, ah, ah, I-yah, ah, ah, ah, I-yah, ah, ah, ah, I-yah-ah," she sings in a serene voice, then the music softens again and her voice drops to a less audible volume, "Thinking, drinking, sinking, feeling. You said watch…that romantic film. But who plays me…and who plays you? Are you the one…who gets the girl? Or are you the one…who ends up dead?" then suddenly the music gets peppier and Rachel starts clapping in rhythm. Soon most of the Club has joined the clapping, "But I will make you see, that you belong to me. Stick me to you, nature needs no glue. I can hold you tigh-ter, but I can't make you ligh-ter than the ai-air you've been brea-thing, I know he'll say don't leave him, while the ca-annons are firing and the world outside's expiring, I've started making plans so come on give me a chaaaance," the last few lines trail off and the Glee Club applauds, some more enthusiastically than others.

When Glee Club ends, Sam catches Rachel's arm as she turns to leave the choir room, "Hey…um, that was a really good song."

"Oh, thankyou Sam," Rachel beams, her smile creeping all the way up until her eyes are lit up with it, "And yours was fantastic as well!"

"Oh, uh, thanks," Sam smiles, amazed that she's stopped to talk to him, "Hey, um, if you don't mind me asking…uh…who was the song for?"

"The…the song that I sang?" Rachel asks, even though she must know that that's what he meant. Sam nods and smiles at her, but she drops her head to look at the floor and suddenly gets very shy, "I…it was for…for a boy who will probably never like me the way I like him."

"Please don't tell me his name is Puck," Sam grins, trying to lighten the mood. He's only half-joking though.

She does give a little laugh as she says, "No, the song wasn't for Noah."

They stand awkwardly for a moment, and then Rachel lifts her head again.

"Um…who was your song for?" she murmurs.

"Oh, uh…" Sam scratches his neck awkwardly as he blushes. But what the hell, right? Maybe he should just tell her, so that she doesn't fall too far in love with this other guy, "Actually…it was for you."

Rachel suddenly looks up at him with wide eyes, and he thinks that he's probably just said the dumbest thing in history and she's not going to want to talk to him. He's about to try and smooth it over, but then she says in a sort of breathy voice that he vaguely thinks he would like to hear more often, "My song was for you."

Then before Sam has a chance to respond or even process what she has said, she has disappeared from the room. He runs to the door and sees her high-tailing it down the corridor and out to the carpark.

"Shit," he murmurs to himself as he lets his head flop backwards to stare at the ceiling.

* * *

The next day Rachel avoids him like the plague between classes, but unfortunately for her, they share the majority of their afternoon ones. Even worse, the only seat left in English when he arrives is the one next to her.

"Um…hi," Sam mumbled as he sits down next to her.

"Hello Sam," she replies evenly, but doesn't look at him.

They sit in silence as the teacher talks about Othello and what a wonderful and revolutionary play it is, but when they are left to do their own work and some soft chatter starts up in various spots, Sam turns to the small singer, "Rachel…I'm sorry if I did something wrong yesterday, but I really did sing that song for you…and…I meant it."

He sees her close her eyes, then turn to him and open them, "You…you didn't do anything wrong…it's just…well you say that now, but you don't really know me that well, and I'm afraid that once you do get to know me better, then you'll just end up hating me like Finn and Noah."

"Rachel, those guys are idiots who don't know what they're giving up. I would _really_ like to get to know you better. Even if it's just as friends," Sam mumbles, being careful not to draw attention from the teacher.

Rachel suddenly gives him this smile that's different from every other one that has ever been directed his way. It's got happiness and excitement in it, but it also has this shade of…_gratitude_, "Okay. Are you free this weekend on Saturday?"

"Sure am. What did you have in mind?" he asks her.

* * *

He ends up just going to her house and they have a picnic in the park across from it. He knows that she is a vegan, so is a little apprehensive about what might be in the picnic basket, but is happy to discover that she has also packed non-vegan treats and sandwiches for him to enjoy. The picnic is absolutely wonderful, Sam decides, and he smiles when she suggests that they go and play board games back at her house. Not many people know that Sam is obsessed with board games, and Rachel laughs a little when he tells her, then agrees to a board game night at his house at some point in the future. They talk about anything and everything under the sun and Sam can't remember the last time he had this much fun. Her dad's are lovely people and ask him if he wants to stay for dinner, to which he agrees.

* * *

Over the next week and a half, Rachel and Sam spend all their free time together and it doesn't take long for Rachel to find herself in love with the boy, instead of just a distant crush. She doesn't know how to tell him this without making a fool of herself (not realising that Sam is in the same boat), but once again, Glee comes to the rescue. Their weekly assignment is to pick a song from an unexpected genre.

Sam decides that he is going to use this assignment to announce his feelings for her. Rachel was clearly thinking along the same lines, because when it's her turn to perform, she steps up to the front of the room and starts in on a pop song.

When she reaches the chorus, she looks directly at Sam and sings, "And I got you, I've got you under my skin, I've got you over my grin, I got you under my skin. Eh and I got you, I, I've got you under my kiss and I've got you over my lips and I've got you under my skin."

She is using her voice in a way that Sam has never heard, and it sends chills up and down his spine. It's sort of gruff and scratchy, but in a very, _very _good way and her eyes are kind of hooded in a way that makes his thoughts turn diiiirty. Plus it's amazing to hear her singing about the fact that he is having such a profound effect on her. He smiles at her when she comes to sit back down and he scoots closer to her so that he can take her hand in his. They aren't an item yet, but he hopes that by the end of his song, he can convince her to agree. Unfortunately the order for these songs is set, so he has to wait for the next Glee lesson to be able to serenade her. When that lesson finishes, he slings an arm around her and leads her to his car. He's taken to driving her to and from school, since they happen to live four streets away from each other.

* * *

The next Thursday, Sam is sitting in his last period Math class, counting down the seconds until he can rush to Glee. Luckily for him, he is first in line for today, so the moment the bell rings, he is shooting off to the choir room. Unfortunately he has forgotten that he has to wait for everyone else to arrive before he performs. One plus, however, is that Rachel always arrives right on time, sometimes early, so he can wait with her.

"What are you singing today Sam?" Rachel asks with a shy smile.

"Hm, I guess you'll have to wait and see," Sam smirks, almost copying her words from when they first started talking.

Rachel smiles and - if Sam isn't much mistaken - blushes. He smiles to himself as his face suddenly burns red and he wonders why he is acting like a 10 year old. Either way, the room eventually fills up and Mr Schue is calling on Sam to perform his song. He smiles, looks over at the band and then looks directly at Rachel as the first few beats start. Some of the Glee Club recognise the song and start tapping their feet to the beat, and the others just seem to like the sound of the song. When the song starts, however, Finn's smile noticeably turns into a frown.

Still smiling at Rachel, Sam begins to sing, "When I wake up, oh I know I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be the man who wakes up next to you. When I go out, hey I know I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be the man who goes along with you. If I get drunk, well I know I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be the man who gets drunk next to you. And if I haver, hey I know I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be the man who's haverin' to you. But _I_ would walk 500 miles and ah-_I_ would walk 500 more…just to _be_ the man who walks a thousand miles, then fall down at your door."

Rachel has got this huge grin on her face, the kind that means she's _really_ happy; the one that shows her bottom teeth too.

"Oh, when I'm workin', yes I know I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be the man who's workin' hard for you. And when the money, comes in for the work I do, I'll pass almost every penny on to you. When I come home, oh I know I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be the man who comes back home to you. And if I go-oh-oh, well I know I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be the man who's going over to you," Sam launches back into the chorus, having kept his eyes on Rachel the entire time. As he starts into the 'dah-dah-dah's, he knows - absolutely _knows_ - that Rachel knows what he is trying to say.

And when he finishes the song, she doesn't even wait for him to move towards her before she launches herself into his arms. He whispers in her ear something along the lines of 'be my girlfriend' and she laughs and whispers something along the lines of 'yes'.

* * *

Rachel Berry and Sam Evans.

The names become absolutely synonymous over the next few days. Where you find one, you are guaranteed to find the other. Even at Sam's football practices, Rachel has taken to sitting in the stands, watching and waving to him every now and then. They scrape together every skerrick of time that they possibly can - between classes, after school, before school, weekends - but they never ever seem to get sick of one another; quite the contrary. After almost a month of being a real, proper couple, they seem to be even more in love than ever. He buys her special little presents and is always slipping little love notes into her things (locker, book, you name it. Once he even managed to get one into her jacket pocket), and she sings him soft songs and bakes him little goodies all the time. They never fight - not about anything - even if they sometimes have their disagreements. Until…

"How could you kiss her?" Rachel yells at Sam, throwing her hair brush at him. He ducks out of the way and opens his mouth to explain, but she hasn't finished. There are tears streaming down her face as she yells, "I _trusted_ you Sam! And _she_ cheated on _you_ when you were together! I just don't understand why she always manages to steal away the only things in my life that make me happy!"

"Rachel! I didn't kiss her!" Sam attempts to tell her, but she just scoffs.

"It's too late for _lies_, I _saw_ you!" Rachel shrieks, and Sam is thanking his lucky stars that Rachel's fathers aren't home, or he would currently be on his way to hospital…or the morgue.

"No Rach, I love you! _She_ kissed _me_! I didn't kiss back, and I pushed her off, and I have absolutely no intention of leaving you for her. I have no feelings for her," Sam tells Rachel, his voice taking of a hint of begging. There are now tears on his face to match the ones on Rachel's, but she won't look at him.

"Please leave," she says quietly. Sam doesn't want to go, but they've never fought before, so he doesn't know what's best. When she repeats herself and then walks away from him, he stumbles out to his car and slams his hands into the steering wheel. At the party that they had gone to, at his insistence, Quinn had made her way over to him and forced him into a kiss before he even registered that she was standing in front of him. Rachel had gone to use the bathroom, and had just happened to walk in at that exact moment. She ran from the room before Sam had time to push Quinn off, throw a look of utter disgust her way, then chase Rachel out of the house. Since he had driven her there, he saw that she was running off down the street, even though it was dark. She lived about ten blocks away from the party, so Sam figured that it would be far too unsafe for her to walk it alone. He jumped in his car and drove after her, slowing down beside her, begging her to get into the car and trying to explain himself. She had refused to either listen or get into the car, so he just drove beside her all the way to her house, all the while pleading with her to just get into the car.

The next day at school, he sees Quinn standing by his locker as he walks up. She smiles as he walks up, and he tries to actively ignore her.

"Sam, can we talk?" he hears her ask. He doesn't answer her, but she asks again.

"About what?" he snaps.

"About us," she replies I her sugary sweet voice.

"There is no _us_!" Sam tells her angrily as he slams his locker shut, and begins to stride away from Quinn.

She hurries to keep up with him, "Sam, you kissed me."

"_You_ kissed _me_," he corrects, "And I wanted _nothing_ to do with it."

"Look, I know that when Manhands walked in, it scared you off, but we don't have to worry about her, she's -"

But Sam never heard what Quinn thought Rachel was, because he whirled around to face her, his face livid, "_Never _call Rachel Manhands _ever_ again. I don't know why you can't get it through your blonde little brain, but I do _not_ want to be with you. I love Rachel. More than anything in my life. So I'm asking you to stay the hell away from my life and from Rachel's. I will not ask again," Sam growls, and Quinn backs off. When he finishes talking she attempts to plaster an uncaring look on her face, but he can see that he has thoroughly embarrassed her.

When Sam turns away from Quinn, he sees a small crowd of students staring at him, some of them smirking, some of them with open mouths - after all, the resident HBIC of McKinley just got _told_.

He knows that Rachel was not a part of that crowd because when he goes to Glee, she is still determinedly ignoring him. Of course he didn't do it just so that she would love him again - he meant every word of it - but he feels that maybe if she saw what he had said, then she will believe that he was telling her the truth.

* * *

A whole week later and Rachel still has not spoken to him, but he is now sure that she knows what happened in the corridor with him and Quinn, because the story spread around the school like wildfire. He notices her sneaking sidelong glances at him every now and then, but other than that, she avoids him at all costs. He doesn't really blame her, because he knows that she has been hurt a lot in the past and that a lot of it was due to Quinn, so he doesn't force himself on her at all. But a week after _that_, and he is seriously starting to fall apart without her. Every chance he gets, he is sneaking looks at her, wishing that he could just sweep her back into his arms and tell her that he loves her so much. But it's not until another Glee lesson pops up that he actually voices this.

"Okay guys, I've been noticing that a lot of you seem to be at each others throats a lot -" Sam knows that this is true. Not only is there a major falling out between himself and Rachel and himself and Quinn, but Mercedes is currently having some stupid little fight with Tina, Brittany and Santana are on the outs with each other, meaning that Artie has also got some beef with Santana, and Finn and Puck are in the middle of one of their bi-monthly spats, "- and I think that it would be a good idea to get rid of some of that tension. This week's Glee assignment is easy enough. I want you all to sing a song about love. Now it doesn't have to be for someone in Glee, but I just want to get some good feelings flowing, all right?" Sam rolls his eyes a little, because he knows that Mr Schue doesn't _really_ care about whether or not half of these fights gets resolved. He wants Quinn and Finn to be happy, sure, but he just wants everyone else to be performing spectacularly.

Either way, Sam decides that he's really going to let Rachel know that he still loves her and that those feelings are some of the strongest ones he's ever felt. So when it comes time to perform, he leaps out of his seat before Mr Schue can even ask for volunteers.

"Rachel," he begins, but she won't meet his eyes, "I know that you still haven't forgiven me, but I want to dedicate this song to you. So…here it is," he tells her then looks over at the band. A slow sort of melody begins, and he closes his eyes as he feels the music start to flow through him. Opening his eyes to sing, he makes sure that he is looking right at Rachel, "The book of love…is long and boring. No one can lift the damn thing. It's full of charts…and facts and figures…and instructions for dancing. But I-I-I-I-I-I-I, I love it when you read to me…and you-ou-ou-ou-ou-ou-ou, you can read me anything. The book of love…has music in it. In fact that's where music comes from. And some it's just transcendental…and some of its just really dumb. But I-I-I-I-I-I-I, I love it when you sing to me…and you-ou-ou-ou-ou-ou-ou, you can sing me anything. The book of love…is long and boring, and written very long ago. It's full of flowers and heart shaped boxes and things we're all to young to know. But I-I-I-I-I-I-I, I love it when you give me things. And you-ou-ou-ou-ou-ou, you ought to give me wedding rings. And I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I, I love it when you give me things. And you-ou-ou-ou-ou-ou-ou, you ought to give me wedding rings. You ought to give me…wedding rings."

The song finishes softly, and Rachel slowly lifts her head and offers a small smile. He goes over to her and kisses her hand while Quinn and Santana fake-gag. Rachel grins at him again, and then leaps up from her seat before anyone else can offer to sing.

"If no one has any objections -" Quinn, Santana and Mercedes all raise their hands, challenging her, but she ignores them "- _I_ would like to go next. I would like to dedicate _my_ song to my wonderful boyfriend Sam, who I was actually planning on forgiving today. I pity those that cannot find a man of their own to care for them and love them, but I encourage them not to attempt to steal mine ever again, because I know now, that he is dedicated to me, as I am to him. So without further ado," she grins, then launches straight into the song, the band following her lead, "Sorting all the lights and darks. Making sure our love won't lose that spark. You really didn't have to. Funny pictures that you take. Dinner out instead of shake and bake. You really didn't have to. Movies and magazines, filling our heads with air, is, love is the little things, love changes everything. Picking me up after work. Putting up with all my silly quirks. You really didn't have to. Saying that my cooking's great, while you try to hide a stomach ache. You really didn't have to," she launches back into the chorus, grinning at Sam almost the entire time, letting her eyes roam around the rest of the Glee Club occasionally. When the instrumental crops up, she sways with the music, then lets her voice grow strong as the instrumental spills over into the chorus again.

* * *

That night Sam spends all of his time with Rachel and attempts to get into her fathers' good books again. Once Rachel tells them that it was a bit of a misunderstanding, however, they seem to warm up to him again. After all, as long as their precious angel is happy, they're happy. The same goes for Sam - every smile that graces her features is one that spills onto his own face; you can never be anything other than smiley around a happy Rachel Berry.

* * *

The relationship intensifies even faster than before, and before long the only time spent out of each others company is classes that they don't share. Their parents even trust them enough to share a bed. They haven't had sex yet because Sam doesn't want to pressure her, and Rachel doesn't want to rush into it, but they both know that it'll happen, because they were pretty much made for each other.

It gets to the point where others can never mention one name without the other. It's always 'Hey Sam, hey Rachel' or 'Where are Sam and Rachel?' or 'Sam and Rachel are lame'. So it's not always good things being said about them, but they both knew that that would happen ("Sam, our cool to loser ratio tips well in favour of loser, because my status is far below everyone else's. As you can see on this graph, I need to be at least 12% cooler in order to balance it out and level it off. As such, we will probably be subject to sub-par behaviour from the McKinley student body, and I hope you -" "I love you, and I'm not going anywhere").

The entire Glee Club can see that this is possibly the first relationship that will last longer than three months (Tina and Mike broke up several weeks ago) and that no amount of drama will tear one away from the other. It's no surprise when they are given the Glee assignment of 'Emotion' that they both decide to sing about each other and to each other. On the day of the assignment, Rachel volunteers to go first and as soon as she launches into it, they all recognise the song.

"You're a falling star, you're the gettaway car, you're the line in the sand when I go too far. You're the swimming pool, on an August day, and you're the perfect thing to say," though the song is traditionally sung by a man, Rachel is pulling it off marvellously and effortlessly, "And you play your cards, but it's kinda cute, ah-when you smile at me, you know exactly what you do. Baby don't pretend, that you don't know it's true, cause you can see the way I look at you," she pulls Sam up and off his seat, twirling around him as she moves into the chorus," And in this crazy life…and through these crazy times, it's you, it's you, you make me sing, you're every line, you're every word…you're everything. You're a carousel, you're a wishing well, and you light me up, when you ring my bell. You're a mystery, you're from outer space, you're every minute, of every day," when she reaches the next bit, she changes the words slightly and taps him on the nose as she reaches the word 'kiss', "And I can't believe, ah that you're my man, oh-and I get to kiss you baby, just because I can! Whatever comes our way, oh we'll see it through, and you know that's what our love can do. And-ah in this crazy life…and through these crazy times, it's you, it's you, you make me sing, you're every line, you're every word, you're everything," after a short instrumental she launches into the 'lah-lah-lah's, then suddenly she is singing again, and her large, brown eyes are focused squarely on Sam, who is standing right next to her and singing along, "And in-ah this crazy li-i-ife, and through these crazy times, it's you, it's you, you make me sing, you're every line, you're every word, you're everythi-i-ing. You're every song…and I sing along…cause you're my everything. So lah-lah-lah-lah-lah-lah-lah. So lah-lah-lah-lah-lah-lalala-lalalah-ah-ah."

When they finish, Sam pulls her in for a kiss as the Glee Club laughs and cheers, even though Quinn is still a little jealous of Rachel. It's no surprise to any of them that Rachel sang a magnificent song, but the level of emotion she put into it let everyone know that every single word was the gospel-truth.

Everyone sits and laughs while Artie dedicates the song 'Never Gonna Give You Up' to Brittany, then tells everyone that they just got Rick-Roll'd (because how could they not expect that, it's such an Artie thing to do), and then Sam stands up to sing his song. It's quite clear that he's about to sing to Rachel, because his eyes have not left hers since Artie finished his song. Tearing his gazeaway briefly, he retrieves a stool from the other side of the room, as well as his guitar, and sets himself up directly in front of her. He strums a few chords to make sure that it's in tune, and then smiles hugely at Rachel and begins.

"It's amazing how you can speak right to my heart. Without saying the words, you can light up the dark. Try as I may, I can never explain, what I hear when you don't say a thing. The smile on your face let's me know that you need me, there's a truth in your eyes saying you'll never leave me. The touch of your hand says you'll catch me wherever I fall. You say it best…when you say nothing at all," the 90s classic makes the whole group smile, but no one's smile is as big and blinding as Rachel's, "All day long I can hear people talking out loud. But when you hold me near, you drown out the crowd. Try as they may, they can never define, what's been said between your heart and mine. The smile on your face let's me know that you need me, there's a truth in your eyes saying you'll never leave me. The touch of your hand says you'll catch me wherever I fall. You say it best…when you say nothing at ah-all. The smile on your face let's me know that you need me, there's a truth in your eyes saying you'll never lea-eave me. The touch of your hand says you'll catch me wherever I fall. You say it best…when you say nothing at all."

As the last sounds of his guitar die off, he looks directly at Rachel and says, "I love you, and I will never stop loving you. You are everything to me and I don't know how I would function without you. You and me Rachel. Forever."

It's kind of corny and a little cliché, but Rachel lives and breathes Broadway classics and fairytales, so she's totally fine with corny and cliché.

* * *

Years later when the pair are married with one 4 year old son and a daughter on the way, they retell their story to little Matheus, who smiles and laughs and claps at the end before he presses a kiss to his mother's round belly ("So that Baby knows I love her"). Sam and Rachel are forever grateful for Glee, because when you think about it, their entire relationship can be traced back to Glee assignments.

**A/N Wow, that was the longest one-shot I've ever written. I am a little disappointed about the back half of this story, because I feel like it was more song than story, but oh well. I usually try not to put in song lyrics, but I felt that this story sort of hinged on the songs, so I sort of wrote it so that you could choose to read the lyrics, but it wasn't necessary. I hope it was ok :)**

**Songs used (in order):**

**-'Merry Happy' by Kate Nash**

**-'Squander' by Skunk Anansie**

**-'Let's Get Together' by Newton Faulker**

**-'Thinking, Drinking, Sinking Feeling' by Slow Club**

**-'Under My Skin' by Gin Wigmore**

**-'(I'm Gonna Be) 500 Miles' by The Proclaimers**

**-'The Book of Love' by Peter Gabriel**

**-'Little Things' by Pomplamoose**

**-'Everything' by Michael Buble**

**-'When You Say Nothing At All' by Ronan Keating**

**Reviews are love!**

**-Alphabet**


	22. Kurchel2

**CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: Only The Good Die Young**

**Characters: Kurchel!friendship, Burt, minor various others**

**Genre: Tragedy/Angst (don't know why I'm doing so many of these, but fear not, I'll be doing a few romance and/or humour ones soon)**

**Summary: Burt was becoming like a father to her and Kurt was pretty much her brother, so when she found out about the accident, she refused to believe it.**

**Notes: Burt is not with Carole in this drabble, meaning that Finn does not live with Kurt.**

Rachel Berry did not have the wonderful home life that everyone thought she did. Her fathers were regularly gone for weeks, sometimes months at a time, leaving her to take care of herself. Of course this lifestyle began to take its toll on Rachel, because being so severely bullied at school meant that she desperately needed someone to talk to…and yet she had no one.

No one, that is, until one day when she was sitting in the auditorium during lunch and she heard the door creak open.

"Hey," came the strangely muted voice of Kurt Hummel.

"Hello," Rachel replied evenly, wondering why he was suddenly acknowledging her in a way that didn't suggest that something bad was about to happen to her.

Kurt perched himself gracefully on the edge of the stage right next to her and lifted his hand to scratch the back of his neck awkwardly. In a soft voice he asked, "Are you…doing okay?"

Rachel opened her mouth, paused for a moment, then said, "I am perfectly fine, thankyou Kurt," though she knew it was a lie.

Peering over at Kurt again, Rachel noted distantly that it was odd seeing Kurt look this…awkward.

"Are you sure?" Kurt tried again, "I just…I've noticed that you've…you've been a little quiet."

Yes, she had definitely never seen this nervous, hesitant side of Kurt. For some reason this new Kurt tore through her carefully constructed defences as though they were tissue paper. One unsure question and one nervous statement suddenly had her eyes filling with hot tears. She swiped at them furiously and once again opened her mouth, ready to falsely assuage his worried. Instead, however, this came out, "I miss my dads."

The sentence was simple enough, and didn't even _really_ contain any misery…but Kurt seemed to understand because he nodded softly. Rachel, suddenly angry at how Kurt was now privy to her much guarded side, turned to him again.

"Why do _you_ suddenly care about me?" she asked accusingly.

He seemed to be prepared for her outburst, though, because he answered with a calm, "I was worried about you."

"What, because I've been talking a little less? I thought you would have been throwing a party about my diminished personality," Rachel frowned deeply at the pale boy, her words laced with venom.

"It's not just that," Kurt murmured, suddenly very quiet again.

"Then what, Kurt? What is it?" Rachel challenged.

Kurt took a small breath, then his eyes flicked to her abdomen. She was suddenly very self-conscious. But…but no, surely not. She had…she had _hidden_ those very well. She had made sure that…that no one would…

"When you slipped over in Glee. No one else saw, but I…" he paused here, and his next admission was so soft that Rachel barely heard it, "I did."

Rachel had no idea how to react to this - she had thought that no one would ever know. She gaped at Kurt for a second, and then she promptly burst into tears. He scooted closer to the girl and hesitantly wrapped his lithe arms around her thin frame.

It was at that exact moment that the friendship was born.

* * *

Kurt and Rachel started hanging out more. He helped her to stop cutting and she started to get a lot better. She started to fight for solos again and put forward ideas in Glee (that everyone else besides Kurt still seemed to groan about).

Kurt suggested the first sleep-over about 3 weeks after their auditorium-chat and she readily agreed. She was instantly a hit with Burt, Kurt's father, and he loved having her round. She started staying at Kurt's for several nights at a time, sharing Kurt's room. She would cook with Kurt, let Burt explain football plays to her, play Monopoly with Kurt (something that others refused to do, as Kurt got very involved in the game), watched Burt and son work on cars occasionally…she practically became a Hummel.

And the best part was that she hadn't cut in over 3 months.

* * *

"Kurt, did I leave my phone charger at my house when we went round to get clothes?" Rachel yelled from Kurt's basement bedroom.

"I haven't seen it here!" Kurt called back.

Rachel frowned, then walked up the stairs to see Kurt sitting at the kitchen table doing his homework. Urt turned to grin at her, thankful for an excuse to take a break from math homework.

"Do you want to go and get it? You can take my car," he smiled.

"I couldn't drive her without you in the car!" Rachel exclaimed, shocked - he had always refused to let Rachel drive the car unless he was in it.

"You need your phone, Diva. How else will I contact you during class?" he smirked, "Besides, I trust you."

"It's raining though," Rachel persisted.

"I _trust_ you," Kurt laughed as he retrieved the keys and pressed them into Rachel's hand.

"If you're sure," Rachel mumbled hesitantly.

"I'm sure," Kurt smiled.

He stood at the door and watched Rachel run through the rain to the car. She backed carefully out of the driveway and drove at pretty much half the speed limit all the way to her house. She quickly located her phone charger, but when she looked outside the window, it seemed that that was all the time needed to go from rainy weather to a full-on thunderstorm.

Picking up her home phone, she dialled Kurt's number.

"Hello, this is Kurt Hummel speaking," came the boy's voice.

"Hello Kurt Hummel. I think it's too dangerous for me to drive home right now," Rachel told him fretfully, "I'm so sorry, I should have just gone without the charger and -"

"It's okay Rachel," Kurt told her, and you could practically hear the smile, "You can just stay there the night and then drive straight to school tomorrow and I'll get a lift with dad."

"Why don't I just come and get you tomorrow morning?"

"Don't be silly, you live about 5 minutes from the school. There's no sense in coming all the way back here. I'll just meet you at school. Love you Diva."

"Love you too Kurtis."

Rachel was still smiling as she hung up, but it was quickly wiped off her face when the sound of thunder rattled the windows. She wished she was back at Kurt's where she felt much more at home.

* * *

The storm had blown itself out by the next morning, so Rachel had no troubles getting to school. She arrived earlier than usual because she felt that Kurt would be eager to get his Baby back…but he wasn't there.

Two minutes before the first bell was due to ring, Rachel got out of the car wondering where Kurt was. He hadn't answered his phone when she rang and hadn't texted her back, so she got a little worried. She'd even tried the home phone to no answer. When homeroom began and Kurt was still nowhere to be seen her stomach clenched a little because something was definitely wrong. She could feel it.

Just as homeroom was about to finish, she suddenly heard a knock at the door. Looking up with a smile, she expected to see Kurt standing there, but instead it was Miss Pillsbury. Wondering what she was doing there, Rachel tried to ignore the sad look in her eyes and the way she pointed at Rachel when she said something quickly to Mrs Kennedy the homeroom teacher. Miss Pillsbury asked for Rachel to bring her things and follow.

Once in Miss Pillsbury's office, the guidance counsellor sat and motioned or Rachel to follow suit. She remained standing. She turned to the side and noticed for the first time that Mr Schue was in the corner of the room - tears streaking down his face.

"What's going on?" Rachel asked shakily.

"Rachel, would you like to sit -"

"No. Tell me what's wrong," Rachel demanded, hot tears starting to prick at her eyes.

"Uhm…Rachel, we understand that you've been spending a lot of time with Kurt and Mr Hummel," Miss Pillsbury began and Rachel nodded dumbly, wondering if perhaps they were about to ask her about where her father's were. After all, what could the school guidance counsellor possibly have to talk about with Rachel regarding Kurt and Burt…unless something had happened. But that…was _impossible_…right? "There's…uhm…there's been an accident. On the way to school, Mr Hummel's car was, uhm…was hit by a, uh…truck. They-they didn't survive," she finished in a solemn voice.

Rachel instantly felt her mind detach from her body and her jaw drop. She glanced over at Mr Schue, perhaps looking for him to refute it, but his downcast eyes told her that he could not. Her mind wouldn't form a coherent thought. Her pseudo-father and -brother…dead? That…that was impossible. Until that point her jaw had been working voicelessly up and down, but she soon found her voice.

"You're lying," she whispered as she staggered backwards, her back hitting the solid wall, "You're lying! No! No, no, _no_! Please, _please_ no!"

Before long, Rachel's knees buckled and she slid to the floor, not caring that the walls were glass and that half the student body was staring at her.

Nothing mattered anymore. Her grief was raw and painful and…and un_bearable._

After nearly four months of not even looking at her razor like that, she finally found comfort in it again.


	23. Authors Note

**THIS IS AN AUTHOR'S NOTE, NOTHING MORE.**

This author's note is an explanation for the extended hiatus, and subsequent 'will not be finished' status of the story. As I've just said, I will not be returning to this story, and the reason for this is as follows.

In May of last year (not long after the last instalment of this "story" was uploaded), I suffered a great personal tragedy. A very close friend of mine passed away and, as could only be expected, I had a very hard time with that. Two months later, another very close friend of mine, also a friend of the girl who passed away, felt unable to cope and sadly he departed this world by his own hand.

Obviously this was a very difficult time for me and is why I left Fanfiction for so long and offered no explanation. I don't know how many people have an alert on this story, but if there is even one, I thought I should just let you know why I will not be continuing with it. I will probably eventually continue to write other things, but after everything that happened, I rather lost my enthusiasm for this story.

I also wanted to say to anyone reading this, that if you have something bad happen in your life, no matter what it is, there will always be people you can talk to. Please reach out to someone. And if you have a friend or family member who you think may be feeling this way, reach out to them. Suicide isn't the answer.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Alphabet Soup x


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